My second hive is very weak and I am going to combine it with my hive with the flow frames using the newspaper method. I will condense the weak hive down to one deep box and want to know if it would be OK to put the newspaper on top of the flow frames box and then the weak hive box on top of that or should I leave the flow frames on the top. The flow frame hive has a deep brood box on the bottom, then a traditional deep full of honey next and then the flow frame box that is just partially filled with nectar and some honey. Finally, I am leaving town for 2 weeks so do you think there is any problem setting all this up before I leave or should I wait till I return so I can watch over everything. The number of bees in the weak hive is dwindling but there will probably be enough to defend the hive from robbing as I have reduced the entrance to barely admit 2 bees.
Take off the flow frames and put the weaker colony on top
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I want to leave the flow frame box on the hive for a few more weeks so are you suggesting putting the flow box back on top of the weaker colony box? If I do will there be a big problem with the bees that happen to be in the flow frames when I do this? I do not have a fume board to force them out before I start the combination?
You don’t need a fume board. Knock up a cheap clearer board. Lots of plans on internet