Combining honey bee hives is sometimes the only option when two colonies are too weak to survive independently. We combined two weak hives by stacking one box directly on the other with a sheet of newspaper between them. The idea is that the bees chew through the newspaper slowly, giving them time to adjust to each other scent before direct contact.
When Combining Hives Fails
Unfortunately, it must have been too late. Both hives died. The top box weighed 30 pounds or more — plenty of honey — but the combined colony could not sustain itself. This is a reminder that combining needs to happen while both colonies still have enough population to build a viable cluster. By the time the bees are visibly failing, combining may only delay the inevitable.
New Hives and Equipment Experiments
The new hive placed in April is doing very well on this first genuinely warm day of the year. The spring has been cold, cold, cold and wet — Seattle at its dreariest. The new bees are booming regardless. We are also on a Puget Sound Beekeepers Association swarm list and anticipating calls.
Meanwhile, we cleaned most of the equipment from the winter dead-outs with bleach and pressure washing. We disposed of a significant amount of stored honey from dead hives — despite it being a waste, evidence suggests that bees placed in dead-out equipment have higher mortality. As a result, we are now running a comparison experiment: new hives on brand-new equipment versus cleaned and bleached reused equipment. So far, no noticeable difference in brood performance.