Combining bee colonies

Posted by Jon on Jun 19, 2010 in Beekeeping | 0 comments

As summer has once again disappeared, I’m getting some jobs out of the way that are best done in cooler weather. I’ve recently noticed that two of my colonies were not doing so well – there was little activity in and out of one whilst from the other the bees appeared to leave and then go straight back. On closer inspection I found one very small colony frantically nursing brood but without enough workers to produce honey for the winter and one busy hive without any brood or a queen (and on further inspection, a damaged superseding cell meaning that there was no queen to hatch). Neither would survive over winter unless I was able to combine them to produce one healthy colony with both a queen and brood.

To combine colonies, the trick is to introduce the bees to each other in a way that the smells and pheromones of the hives become intermingled before the bees meet each other. If they are just put together, they will kill each other but if we can trick them into believing they are all from the same colony then they should live happily ever after. This is achieved by smoking both colonies to calm them and then placing one colony on top of the other separated by only 2 sheets of newspaper. The paper has small slits between each frame which allow the bees to slowly make their way through it, but not before the smells are intermingled and they don’t realise they are entering enemy territory. Any foragers returning to the old base will make their way to the new hive or another nearby hive.

Gradually, small strips of newspaper are drawn down through the hive and discarded out of the front and one healthy colony is born. Within a few days, normal colony activity has been observed with foragers returning to the new hive loaded with pollen.  Now all I need to do is pop on the top honey super to encourage them to store honey when the colony is settled and they are set for the year ahead (hopefully!).

Here it is in pictures (click to enlarge).