Suzy,

Another quick way is to take a bottle type sprayer that has never been
used with chemicals or pesticides and fill it about half-way with 50/50
water and sugar syrup  and a couple drops flavored extract; peppermint,
almond, vanilla all work fine. Then spray the bees and frames of each hive
or nuc to be combined as the case may be with the bottle sprayer using a
very fine light mist onto most frames of bees being careful not to spray
onto frames with uncapped brood. Also, be careful not to saturate the bees
as too much of a syrup can also do harm. Just be sure  that this is done
on a fairly warm day in cooler weather so as not to chill the brood. Since
the scent of the extract masks each hive's scent, and all the bees of both
colonies are busy licking and cleaning the syrup off each other everyone
becomes friends rather quickly; nobody likes to fight on a full stomach.

Chuck Norton
Reidsville, NC

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