The newspaper method is a simle convenient way to combine colonies. In the case of the wax moth being the cause for combining two colonies I would be cautious about bringing the attending problems of the weak colony TO the strong colony. It seems accepted practice to do this but I again would measure the value of the bees to be "rescued">IMHO<marginal gain vs:greater ills. ie: tracheal mites,varroa other diseases..... NOW to the newspaper method. NEWSPAPER METHOD 1. Remove/kill the queen from the weak hive before combining to your strong colony. (presuming the strong colony is with a healthy queen) 2. Remove the cover from your strong colony, smoking the bees down, place a sheet of newsprint on the top of the strong hive. (tape it down on the sides with some cheap tape if your working alone.) You now have the strong colony contained. 3. Just before stacking the queenless hive bodies on the top of the newsprint, poke or cut a few small slits in the newsprint (to provide the bees a place to begin cutting the newsprint on their own.) small cuts. 4. Replace inner cover/top cover.. go home..say prayer.. I believe that is it in a nutshell. The bees will chew the paper into little bits and remove them from the hive. Apparently in the housekeeping confusion they accept the scent of the foreign hive that was grafted on as OK. A good reference for some tips aside from the BEE-L are The Hive and the Honey Bee. ABC's and XYZ's of Bee Culture, and a small book How to Keep Bees and Sell Honey. I wanted to provide these book titles for the new beekeeper as I personally have found them usefull..... Merry Christmas, God Jul. .. Maynard.... [log in to unmask] On Fri, 22 Dec 1995, Peter Plumley wrote: > I've seen many references to the 'Newspaper Method' of combining hives but > have never read about the details. Can someone elaborate on this method - > or refer to a published account? > > Thanks, PWP>