On 15/03/2012 7:10 AM, Bill T wrote:

 > You are not alone. I googled combining hives and every one was the 
newspaper method, so most all of us seem to be beginners. It is easy and 
works. And you do not >have to interview the bees to see if they get along.

Well, books are written for beginners, and I was mighty glad of them 
when I was starting.

Before AFB became a problem here we regularly cross supered.  It is best 
when hives are placed in rows parallel to the truck, rather than at 
right angles.

One takes the honey off the first hive and places it beside the last 
hive, cover if necessary.  Place empty super on first hive, then honey 
super from second hive on top of first, and so on till the last hive.  
It means you do not have to lift supers very far and simply swing around 
and place on the previous (empty) super.  Anyway the point as far as the 
thread goes is that bees never seemed to fight.  Also interesting in 
that the extra bees from a good hive did not seem to boost a weak hive.  
A failing or poor queen will not be helped by anything other than 
replacement.

Geoff Manning

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