How to Combine Two Weak Hives

Combining two weak hives gives them a better shot at survival and a stronger start for next season. If both colonies are struggling to build population or stores, merging them into one well-resourced hive is often smarter than watching both fail. This guide walks you through the safest method so the bees accept each other without fighting.

Step 1: Decide Which Queen to Keep

You can only have one queen in a hive, so your first job is to pick which colony’s queen stays and which one gets removed. The best choice is usually the younger, healthier queen — she’ll lay more eggs and live longer. If both queens seem equally vigorous, pick the one from the colony with better genetics or temperament (if you’ve noticed one is calmer than the other).

Once you’ve decided, find and remove the queen you’re not keeping. Mark her cage or container clearly so you don’t accidentally release her back. Some beekeepers keep a spare queen in a small mating nuc (a miniature hive used to house a queen and a small number of bees) for a few days, just in case the combine fails, but this isn’t essential for beginners. If you’re unsure which queen is which or can’t find one, wait a day or two and try again — don’t combine blind.

The queen you’re removing can be given to another beekeeper, introduced to a queenless nuc if you have one, or humanely killed if neither option works. Releasing her into the wild won’t help her.

Step 2: Prepare Both Hives

Move the weaker hive next to the stronger one, or place them side by side if they’re already in the same apiary. You’ll be combining them into a single box, so decide now which hive will become your “home” — usually the one with the stronger brood pattern or more stores.

Before combining, inspect both hive bodies. Remove any frames of disease, mold, or heavy pest damage — you don’t want to introduce problems into your combined hive. Make sure both hives have at least some food stores; if either is nearly empty, feed them both for a few days before combining.

Prepare the stronger hive by creating a space in the middle of its brood nest. Remove one or two outer frames of stores if needed, so you have room to slide in brood frames from the weaker hive. This step matters: bees cluster around brood, so placing the weak hive’s brood near the center helps the combined population stay warm and organized.

Step 3: The Newspaper Combine Method

The newspaper method is the gentlest way to combine two colonies. It works because bees chew through paper slowly, giving them time to mingle and accept each other’s scent.

Lay a single sheet of newspaper over the top bars of the stronger hive’s brood chamber. You can poke a few small holes in it with a toothpick — this gives the bees an initial scent pathway between the two boxes before they chew through fully. Now place the weaker hive’s brood chamber directly on top of the newspaper, aligning the frames. Put the inner cover and outer cover on top, and you’re done with the physical work.

Over the next 2 to 5 days, the bees will chew through the newspaper from both sides. By the time it’s completely gone, they’ll have mingled enough that fighting is unlikely. You’ll see bits of paper on the landing board and inside the hive — this is normal.

Don’t open the hive to check on progress. Let them work. If you hear aggressive roaring or see heavy fighting at the entrance, you may have combined too hastily or picked the wrong queen, but this is rare with the newspaper method.

Step 4: Post-Combine Inspection Timing

Wait at least 5 to 7 days before opening the combined hive to inspect. The bees need time to settle, and the queen needs time to start laying in her new home. When you do open it, remove the now-shredded newspaper and any frames from the top box that are empty or have no brood. Consolidate everything into a single brood chamber so the cluster stays tight.

Check that the queen is alive and laying. At your first inspection — 5 to 7 days after combining — you should be able to see fresh eggs or young larvae if the queen is healthy and accepted. If you don’t see eggs at that point, inspect again a few days later. Continued absence of eggs means the queen may have been injured during the process or rejected by the bees — this is uncommon but possible, and you’ll need to source a new queen promptly.

Feed the combined hive for the next 2 to 3 weeks if it’s spring or early summer. The merged colony will need extra resources to grow and rebuild its numbers. By midsummer, a successful combine should look and behave like a normal, single hive.