Combine weak with strong

Always merge a weaker colony into a stronger, queenright colony rather than combining two weak hives together. Place the weaker colony's frames above the stronger hive, using the newspaper method to separate them. Remove or dispatch the queen from the weaker colony beforehand so the strong colony's queen remains unchallenged.

Why It Works

A strong colony has enough worker bees and resources to absorb and integrate newcomers without being destabilized. Merging two weak colonies rarely produces a viable hive because neither has the population or stores to sustain growth, and queen conflicts often arise.

Tips

• Inspect both hives for disease before combining -- merging a diseased colony will infect the healthy one
• Perform the combine in late afternoon or evening when foragers have returned and bees are calmer
• If the weak colony is queenless, you can combine immediately without waiting to remove a queen
• Monitor the combined hive for the following week to confirm the queen is laying normally