REGARDING RE>combining hives Duane Bajema wrote: >Last week, I had a hive tip over due to strong wind. I lost some bees and now the hive is is occupied by a relatively small bee population. I want to join the small population with an existing strong hive since the small colony would have a difficult time surviving the winter. My question is, how do I proceed here in Northwest Iowa where the temperatures are already below freezing? Will the two queens do battle till one survives or do I run the danger of losing both queens if I join the colonies? I have joined a queenless colony with a queenright colony many times using the newspaper method, but I have never joined two queenright colonies at this late time of the year. Suggestions?< This is certainly a difficult time of the year to have to deal with such a problem. The results of doing nothing would, as you surmise, probably lead to the winter kill of the weak colony. In this light, I would think that you would join these colonies at this time of the year without using newspaper. With temperatures as cold as they are getting now in the midwest US, I doubt that there would be any intra-hive battles between the workers. The queens would probably be OK too, for the most part. If they should happen to come upon each other they might fight, but that's a chance you will have to take. The alternative would be to open a hive in the cold to go looking for the queen when the colony would probably be in winter cluster! Hive combining might work or might not, but leaving it alone surely won't work at all. Ted Fischer Dexter, MI USA