Is this a viable plan?
A little history first. I caught a swarm earlier this year that is currently hived in a 2 deep configuration. The second box was added a few weeks ago as the first box was approximately 80% drawn. They have started to draw maybe 1 frame (using wax foundation) in the second deep. This hive has never really taken off from the get go, and during my last inspection there was scattered drone brood, eggs on sides of cells and multiple eggs in some cells. I've tried supplementing this hive several times with frames of capped brood / open brood/ and eggs with hopes they'd make a queen, but so far no go and I currently thinks I'm wasting resources in continuing to try and support. So here's my plan, and let me know your opinions if I'm on the right track.
I've got a Nuc with a good queen, great laying pattern and a lot of bees. I'd been using this NUC as a resource hive to both the referenced hive and for another NUC that had been doing poorly. They're ready to move up to a full size box. What'd I'd considered doing is to take the suspected laying worker hive and shaking the bees off away from the hive location and returning the box to it's original site. I then plan to add the Nuc frames to the second deep and do a newspaper combine of the two hives. My hopes are that shaking bees away from the hive will remove the laying workers and placing the newspaper between the two deeps will allow the queen right Nuc to combine with the remaining foragers from the suspected laying worker hive.
Thoughts ya'll -- am I on the right track in dealing with this, or other other options.
