newspaper combine for swarm ?

[malabarchillin]

I have never collected a swarm before. Near me a woman saw my blog and called me about a swarm. She said another guy came a week ago and got a swarm, but there are still bees in the swarm location. I could not get a good answer on qty of bees. Is it likely that these are just stragglers still hanging out in the last location they saw their queen ? A week seems a long time to hang out in the open. I have never done a newspaper combine before. If the swarm is queenless I have a weak nuc that could really use the bees. In a newspaper combine does there need to be a top entrance or will the upper (new) bees chew through the paper before they need food or water ?
Thanks
Mike

[budhanes]

Just lay 1 sheet of newspaper across and "stab" it a few times with the hive tool. All will go fine. I've done it twice now and it worked great. No extra entrance needed, they'll get through the paper in about a day.

[JP]

If the temps are way up, I would at least prop the top, the bees could suffocate before they combine this time of yr.

A week is a very long time for bees to still be gathered, they may have not gotten the queen, could be stragglers or even another swarm.


...JP

[Janemma]

When I combined mine this past I used a spare bottom board as a lid for the first day as this provided an ideal entrance at the top for the first day.  I had put a couple of slits in the newspaper.

When I check a day or so later NO bees were using the top entrance at ALL - they were ALL using the bottom entrance to come and go - so I happily removed the bottom board from the top and replaced the proper lids knowing the bees had happily combined.  I had placed a piece of wood beneath the front of the hive to check for the number of dead bees removed from the hive and was happy to see that the number didn't go up much more than normal over those two days - so the hives weren't killing each other as they combined.

It was my first time combining so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it seems to have gone well :)