I have a few hives that have swarmed and the swarms are now in their own hives. The parent hive now appears queenless, with no open brood and very little capped brood and no queen cells.
I have too many hives and would like to combine the swarms back into a hive maybe not the same one it came out of.
What are the problems with trying a newspaper combine with the swarm queen right hive on the top and the larger queenless hive on the bottom.
Could I just put the swarm hive between the honey supers and brood chamber of the larger parent hive with a sheet of newspaper with slits to help acceptance.
Maybe shake the bees out of the honey supers of the parent hive before putting the swarm hives on?
What you are saying may work. If it were me, I would do a normal top combine with newspaper. Then I would remove empties after a week. You may have to go through the hive and move empty frames into a box until you have a box full of empties.