combining nuc with swarm hive

[vvand111]

can somebody tell me where the thread on this board is that gives me some detail about combining a nuc with the remnants of a swarmed hive in order to make both stronger. I remember something about newspaper but cannot find the thread I remember reading.  Any other advice is welcome as well.  For instance what are the situations that I should be considering this move.

I had a couple of swarms about a week ago. Those post are under the swarm section.

I went in to one of the swarm captures today and I have a queen cell but I really do not believe I have a queen in this portion of the capture.  I am thinking that I could pull the queen cell and combine all of those bees with one of my new nucs??

[Perry]

Newspaper combines are fairly straightforward. When I want to add a 5 frame nuc to a queenless hive, I put a single layer of newspaper on the queenless hive, set a deep with 5 frames in it on the newspaper, and then add the 5 frames of bees from the nuc. I often cut a few slits in the newspaper with my hive tool to help the bees get started.
In your case I would remove that queen cell.

[vvand111]

OK Perry.  Seems straight forward.  What about the medium above the number 2 deep full of honey. Should that be removed at the same time or leave it for a week or so just to be confident that they are getting enough to continue building out comb.  I have been feeding 2 other hives and have put out a community feeder and none of the bees have any interest right now.?

[Wandering Man]

I combined frames of brood, bees, and honey with the remnants of a swarm a couple of months ago.  I failed to give the nuc enough bees, though, and the small hive beetles ruined two frames before I discovered the problem.  After I cleaned up the mess, I added more brood, honey, and bees via a paper combine.  I made two mistakes this time: first, I had two sheets of paper, making the bees job harder, and second, I forgot to slit or punch holes in the paper, making the bees really angry because there was no ventilation.

The combine worked, anyway.  After the bees alerted me to their distress by stinging my poor dog, I removed the paper, and everyone got calmer.

What didn't work was that I accidentally moved the queen with the brood, and must not have left enough brood in the donor hive.  When I checked on the donor hive, I discovered no queen and no brood.  So I did another paper combine, combined the donor hive back to the recipient hive.

I'm now back where I started.  Made a lot of mistakes, but learned a lot.

[vvand111]

OK  Great to see the tar heels win tonight    GO HEELS

Plan is to:

Remove queen cells from 10 frame deep box that has housed part of a swarm from last week.

Pull several frames of honey from brood box and put frames of undrawn  plastic foundation in their place.

Put a sheet of newspaper on top of this deep with a few razor blade slits in the newspaper about 3 inches long.( how many) ?

Place the next deep on top of newspaper with the new 5 frame nuc frames as well as an additional 5 undrawn plastic foundation frames.

Remove existing 10 frame super with 8 frames of honey , take to honey house.

Does this sound like the right process??

I was also thinking about putting a top feeder on with 1 to 1 but none of my bees are taking any sugar water right now.
I would also wonder if I should have the top entrance open as well or should I tape that off.??

Trying to learn guys   thanks for the answers or opinions as is more likely.

[vvand111]

upper entrance question is important

[Perry]

Two or three slits in the paper, and an upper entrance makes things easier for the bees. The ones in the upper box don't get frustrated in their attempt to get out, but they will still chew through the paper.

[vvand111]

Thanks,

Got it done this morning.  I am guessing the paper stays on for 5 days??

[Perry]

The bees should have opened it enough to mingle within 24 hours. 5 days is plenty or if you're like me, just leave it. Within a few weeks you won't even know it was there, they'll have removed it all.