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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
So the outside bees do have access to the candy int the queen cage, right? So they can chew in and release her? And does she have attendants? I saw CE ask that, but if you answered, I missed it. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
Originally Posted By BustinCaps:
Perfect. I figured since I had (incorrectly) removed all queen cells Sunday, I had plenty of time to accept and release queens before a challenger appeared. My one regret is early destruction of queen cells. But with eggs present in both hives, my in the moment logic was they could raise new ones on my program if necessary. And does she have attendants? I saw CE ask that, but if you answered, I missed it. We'll see what happens. |
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"We choose to go to the can. We choose to go to the can in this week and not do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
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New page?
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Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
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Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
Awesome. Will look forward to how it works out for the new queens. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes |
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Originally Posted By cuttingedge:
I forgot to ask if they were marked? It would be good if they were so that you could identify them easily. As I stated earlier, I don't usually remove cups/ cells until I have replacement mated queens in hand. A few days off and wild or rogue cells could hatch around the same time as mated queens are released and unless your mated queens are marked, you will have no idea which Queen is running around the hive. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By cuttingedge:
Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
Originally Posted By BustinCaps:
Outside have access to candy. Attendants in cage. We'll see what happens. Will look forward to how it works out for the new queens. |
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"We choose to go to the can. We choose to go to the can in this week and not do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" |
Veteran of the Third Battle of Tannhauser Gate.
NM, USA
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Dont you know about sergeants?
Well... I'm learning. They dont have mothers. Just ask any trained private. They reproduce by fission... like all bacteria. |
Veteran of the Third Battle of Tannhauser Gate.
NM, USA
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Dont you know about sergeants?
Well... I'm learning. They dont have mothers. Just ask any trained private. They reproduce by fission... like all bacteria. |
Originally Posted By FrankSymptoms:
Clipped? you mean, wings?? never heard of that. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes |
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"We choose to go to the can. We choose to go to the can in this week and not do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" |
Originally Posted By BustinCaps:
It's supposed to help prevent absconding/swarming. I'm in the "I don't care about money, experiment and learn" phase. View Quote |
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Veteran of the Third Battle of Tannhauser Gate.
NM, USA
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One thing I noticed when I opened my hive: in the places where they'd covered cracks and holes with propolis, it had melted, automatically providing some air flow!
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Dont you know about sergeants?
Well... I'm learning. They dont have mothers. Just ask any trained private. They reproduce by fission... like all bacteria. |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
|
Originally Posted By cuttingedge:
Having them clipped will not prevent swarming, it will only slow the process down. I am not a big advocate of clipping wings but my queen breeder friend does it. He clips the right wing for even years and left wing for odd years. He has been doing this for a long time. I asked him why the other day and he said because the marking paint comes off of the queens so he can determine age by looking at the clipped wings. Makes sense especially if you requeen a lot. View Quote And I have had paint wear off of a queen. By then I could spot the queen without it, easily, of course, but that was not my primary purpose for marking anyhow. It was to know whether I'd had a supercedure. Anyway, I could never be okay with the clipping, so I actually bought two different color queen marking pens and the little setup for marking the queens at one point. Think I did blue for even years, pink for odd. But I may be remembering wrong. |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
|
Originally Posted By FrankSymptoms:
One thing I noticed when I opened my hive: in the places where they'd covered cracks and holes with propolis, it had melted, automatically providing some air flow! View Quote One more thing about your region that makes me go, "wait, wut?" |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Thought I would pop in to update my hive location issue in case anyone was interested.......
The plan was to relocate the hive to my in-laws property about 2.5 miles away, on my route to work, so I could still take good care of the hive, but have it out of the backyard. (Backstory on page 101). I put it off as long as I could to allow the hive to continue to mature and fill-in, then I got stuck with a couple of weeks of uncooperative weather. Finally, this past Saturday I went out at 1am to close the hive up prior to moving it. First thing I discovered, was that there were tons of bees hanging out at the entrance and vent at 1am. So I got the smoker, and smoked them inside. Sealed up the holes with screen door mesh stapled into place. Got the hive body and bottom secured, cargo straps cinched up around and over/under. Left it for a day and a half, and then went to move it. At which point I discovered my stupidity. A more experienced beekeeper would have known that a screened bottom board is not a properly supported and sealed containment. As soon as I started to lift it, angry bees everywhere. So i abandoned the effort, and got everything back the way it was. However, there is some good news. My little fiasco prevented me from moving the hive before the big party yesterday. The bees did their bee thing, and the kids were everywhere, there were absolutely no problems. I had loud music, kids yelling, running, swimming, it was a complete non-issue. So it looks like i will keep my hive in it's corner after all. |
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A chance to cut is a chance to cure
Life Member: AR15.com, NRA, NYSRPA, SAF Team Ranstad Callsign: Sawbones |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
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Originally Posted By fish223:
Thought I would pop in to update my hive location issue in case anyone was interested....... The plan was to relocate the hive to my in-laws property about 2.5 miles away, on my route to work, so I could still take good care of the hive, but have it out of the backyard. (Backstory on page 101). I put it off as long as I could to allow the hive to continue to mature and fill-in, then I got stuck with a couple of weeks of uncooperative weather. Finally, this past Saturday I went out at 1am to close the hive up prior to moving it. First thing I discovered, was that there were tons of bees hanging out at the entrance and vent at 1am. So I got the smoker, and smoked them inside. Sealed up the holes with screen door mesh stapled into place. Got the hive body and bottom secured, cargo straps cinched up around and over/under. Left it for a day and a half, and then went to move it. At which point I discovered my stupidity. A more experienced beekeeper would have known that a screened bottom board is not a properly supported and sealed containment. As soon as I started to lift it, angry bees everywhere. So i abandoned the effort, and got everything back the way it was. However, there is some good news. My little fiasco prevented me from moving the hive before the big party yesterday. The bees did their bee thing, and the kids were everywhere, there were absolutely no problems. I had loud music, kids yelling, running, swimming, it was a complete non-issue. So it looks like i will keep my hive in it's corner after all. View Quote But...two questions: 1-Why did the SBB not support the hive? What happened? Did it fall apart or something? I could pick up my hives with the SBB underneath, with no problem at all. But my SBBs were built solidly. I'm wondering what happened with yours? 2-how is your hive doing overall? I mean, if they were hanging out on the porch at 1 in the morning, what gives? Were they smoking dope? Drinking? What? Do you have brood? Eggs? Capped larvae? Honey and pollen? Do you need to add space for them? (sounds like it). ETA: I'm really glad you checked in. I've thought of you, and your hives, a bunch over the past month. Figured the hive had been moved and the parties had gone down already. Really wonderful to hear that your experience was a normal one--that life can go on around a beehive with no issues. |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
|
@cuttingedge
Will you talk about why you are not reversing boxes? And why you checkerboard instead? Explanations of what you are doing (and what you are NOT doing that is common wisdom) and why would be of benefit to many. And your experience with this in the season that follows might, as well. You've caught a lot of swarms. Not more than normal, for the number of hives you have (at least, in my view) but still...some hives are clearly swarming. But maybe that's what you want. For a lot of us with old-school methodologies, what you are doing is new ground. If you are willing to share, we could all learn. |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
@cuttingedge Will you talk about why you are not reversing boxes? And why you checkerboard instead? Explanations of what you are doing (and what you are NOT doing that is common wisdom) and why would be of benefit to many. And your experience with this in the season that follows might, as well. You've caught a lot of swarms. Not more than normal, for the number of hives you have (at least, in my view) but still...some hives are clearly swarming. But maybe that's what you want. For a lot of us with old-school methodologies, what you are doing is new ground. If you are willing to share, we could all learn. View Quote I did reverse brood boxes on "some" of my production colonies but before I did, I added honey supers and did not reverse until after the dandelion flow. This was to keep from getting chilled brood which can be a big problem especially up here in the spring. I also am managing a few single deep brood box colonies this year. One of them has three supers on it right now. One of my friends manages all singles so I took his advice and tried a few. So far, they are producing a lot of honey. Unfortunately, one of them swarmed as with this management style you are using Excluders and if the bees store honey in the brood nest, the queen runs out of room to lay fairly quickly. Part of his management is having bees that have a low tendency to swarm. He runs all Danish Buckfast queens and can have an incredibly populous colonies without swarming. I have 10 of these queens coming on July 10th but figured I would try in the interim with an Italian (swarmed twice) and a Carni/ Italian mutt from my own stock. As far as checker boarding or manipulating frames as opposed to reversing boxes, who wants to move boxes around? I find it easier to manipulate frames and get the same results! Part of the reason behind me not having to reverse is that I am splitting hives so much. At one point I made it so that I had an abundance of queens available so I was splitting on average about 4:1. After that, you are eliminating the upper brood box for a while so I didn't have to reverse. As to swarming, I let a few of my very strong drone colonies swarm. The reason behind this is that they are very strong (lots of drones) so swarming gives them a brood break. These are set up with lots of drone comb for mating and become "Mite Bombs" after a while. Besides all of that, my cell builder hive swarmed last week. It was right after the second round of grafts where developed into cells. I think that I made it too strong and after thy completed the cells, bye bye! It is difficult to manage them because you want them working on both the emergency superceedure as well as swarm impulse. If you set-them up too strong, you run the risk of them taking off. I usually try and pack about 12-15 frames worth of bees into the top (queenless) box so that they have an abundance of bees to start working the cells. After two days you are uniting them with the Queenright colony below with the Cloake board and together they complete the cells as one big Queenright colony. I set up another cell builder the beginning of last week and yet another one today as I am hosting an open hive meeting with my friend (queen breeder) and doing some demonstrations on different methods of queen rearing. He is doing a presentation on Thursday for our club and a follow up on Saturday here at my house. By mid July I will probably have 50 or so extra queens |
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Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
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Dang. Wish I could be there to learn from that meeting.
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Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Me too.
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A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!!!
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Come on up! I will even cook for you
My wife takes excellent notes so I will scan them and post them for you. Sometime after next weekend. |
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Thank You.
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A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!!!
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Veteran of the Third Battle of Tannhauser Gate.
NM, USA
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Dont you know about sergeants?
Well... I'm learning. They dont have mothers. Just ask any trained private. They reproduce by fission... like all bacteria. |
It's probably too late, but I have a tendency to ask for advice after I do something.
I did a hive inspection yesterday, and one of my hives had 4 or 5 queen cells in the top box that had larva in them and would have been capped before I went back in. Today I went back in, grabbed the queen and a frame of brood, added a frame of honey and two empty frames, and stuck them in a nuc. I shook a frame or two into the nuc with the queen and buttoned it up. I have no idea how many bees stayed. I assumed the girls were getting ready to take a trip, so I beat them to it. Dumb? Next step? |
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Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
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Originally Posted By fish223:
Kitties, Frank, perhaps I wasn't explaining what happened properly. Here is a pic I took yesterday to show what happened: https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/59378/hive-back-239301.jpg When I lifted the sealed, and strapped together, SBB in it's SBB holder, and the deep, away from the 2x4 base framework, a gap opened up between the top of the plastic cardboard sheet, and the bottom of the SBB. Where the red arrow tips are showing. I do not have any idea on how bees got through the screen itself, there must be a gap internally somewhere I guess, but as soon as I shifted and lifted the hive, bees started pouring out of that gap. Rather than attempt to load and transport a "leaking" hive in my van, I abandoned the effort. I suppose that there is a possibility that these bees were not leaking out of the hive, but in fact were in the hive base just hanging out, but in any event, given the amount of bees uncontained, i didn't think driving around with them was the smartest idea. View Quote At some point, when you reverse boxes in the spring, or take the hive apart for some other reason, it would pay to take a close look at that SBB I'd say. |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
|
Originally Posted By Martlet:
It's probably too late, but I have a tendency to ask for advice after I do something. I did a hive inspection yesterday, and one of my hives had 4 or 5 queen cells in the top box that had larva in them and would have been capped before I went back in. Today I went back in, grabbed the queen and a frame of brood, added a frame of honey and two empty frames, and stuck them in a nuc. I shook a frame or two into the nuc with the queen and buttoned it up. I have no idea how many bees stayed. I assumed the girls were getting ready to take a trip, so I beat them to it. Dumb? Next step? View Quote However, I don't know that it will work. I also don't know that it won't, and CE or Dux may have more to say, as that's not something I've tried. Did you, by any chance, put a queen excluder under the nuc to keep the old queen in there? |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
No, not dumb I don't think. However, I don't know that it will work. I also don't know that it won't, and CE or Dux may have more to say, as that's not something I've tried. Did you, by any chance, put a queen excluder under the nuc to keep the old queen in there? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
Originally Posted By Martlet:
It's probably too late, but I have a tendency to ask for advice after I do something. I did a hive inspection yesterday, and one of my hives had 4 or 5 queen cells in the top box that had larva in them and would have been capped before I went back in. Today I went back in, grabbed the queen and a frame of brood, added a frame of honey and two empty frames, and stuck them in a nuc. I shook a frame or two into the nuc with the queen and buttoned it up. I have no idea how many bees stayed. I assumed the girls were getting ready to take a trip, so I beat them to it. Dumb? Next step? However, I don't know that it will work. I also don't know that it won't, and CE or Dux may have more to say, as that's not something I've tried. Did you, by any chance, put a queen excluder under the nuc to keep the old queen in there? Took excluders out after two days. Today at the 8 day mark I found both queens, no queen cells, and plenty of eggs, with lots of new comb going up. Whether or not the queen excluder helped or not I don't know. I doubt it hurt. The hives had pollen and nectar coming in. I'll update on the original hives and the queen intro success on Wednesday when I open them at the 7 day mark from adding the queens. |
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"We choose to go to the can. We choose to go to the can in this week and not do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" |
Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
No, not dumb I don't think. However, I don't know that it will work. I also don't know that it won't, and CE or Dux may have more to say, as that's not something I've tried. Did you, by any chance, put a queen excluder under the nuc to keep the old queen in there? View Quote |
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Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
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Originally Posted By Martlet:
No. My nuc doesn't have room for an excluder. I could try to put one over the front of the hole, if that would help. Might be too late already if she has plans to move. I moved them three hours ago. I could transfer them to a deep tomorrow if you think that's better. I just thought a NUC would be smaller so they'd stay put. I guess worse case scenario she'll bail with the few bees I left her with, right? View Quote Still...some of them will not abandon the brood, so you will still have a hive. Whether that queen gets mated and becomes viable...time will tell. If I had a deep and a queen excluder, I'd put them in there tomorrow. The rest of the bees might vamoose...but it's unlikely, if the queen can't go. USUALLY it's the mated queen who leaves with the hive. I'm sure sometimes they could possibly swarm with a virgin queen, but that's not to their benefit, and they're (usually) not stupid. |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
Yes, worst case, she'll bail, but some of the bees from the original hive may go with her, because they'll follow her scent. Still...some of them will not abandon the brood, so you will still have a hive. Whether that queen gets mated and becomes viable...time will tell. If I had a deep and a queen excluder, I'd put them in there tomorrow. The rest of the bees might vamoose...but it's unlikely, if the queen can't go. USUALLY it's the mated queen who leaves with the hive. I'm sure sometimes they could possibly swarm with a virgin queen, but that's not to their benefit, and they're (usually) not stupid. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
Originally Posted By Martlet:
No. My nuc doesn't have room for an excluder. I could try to put one over the front of the hole, if that would help. Might be too late already if she has plans to move. I moved them three hours ago. I could transfer them to a deep tomorrow if you think that's better. I just thought a NUC would be smaller so they'd stay put. I guess worse case scenario she'll bail with the few bees I left her with, right? Still...some of them will not abandon the brood, so you will still have a hive. Whether that queen gets mated and becomes viable...time will tell. If I had a deep and a queen excluder, I'd put them in there tomorrow. The rest of the bees might vamoose...but it's unlikely, if the queen can't go. USUALLY it's the mated queen who leaves with the hive. I'm sure sometimes they could possibly swarm with a virgin queen, but that's not to their benefit, and they're (usually) not stupid. |
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Update on my emergency swarm prevention splits.
Two new hives with original queens: Both queens present and laying, two new frames built with comb in each, 8 frames total. No queen cells in sight. Removed excluders from bottom board, added second deep. Original two hives: Introduced two queens last Wednesday morning after 3 days queenless. One hive has queen present today. Gentle but active, no queen cells. Other hive, no queen or eggs after checking 20 frames. Bees everywhere. A few frames of older capped brood. Lots of honey. Tons of capped swarm and supercedure cells. Packed to the gills with bees. Very loud and mean enough to put gloves on. This last hive now leaves me in a bind. Do I order another queen and try again? Should I let them raise one? If they have been queenless 10 days, and I raise a new one will the hive be at risk for failure this winter? If I choose to buy a new queen should I wait a few more days and make sure I'm not blind? Overall, I don't feel like I'm in to big of a bind for a newb. I can always combine this hive with others as a last resort and take my losses in the summer. |
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"We choose to go to the can. We choose to go to the can in this week and not do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" |
Originally Posted By BustinCaps:
Update on my emergency swarm prevention splits. Two new hives with original queens: Both queens present and laying, two new frames built with comb in each, 8 frames total. No queen cells in sight. Removed excluders from bottom board, added second deep. Original two hives: Introduced two queens last Wednesday morning after 3 days queenless. One hive has queen present today. Gentle but active, no queen cells. Other hive, no queen or eggs after checking 20 frames. Bees everywhere. A few frames of older capped brood. Lots of honey. Tons of capped swarm and supercedure cells. Packed to the gills with bees. Very loud and mean enough to put gloves on. This last hive now leaves me in a bind. Do I order another queen and try again? Should I let them raise one? If they have been queenless 10 days, and I raise a new one will the hive be at risk for failure this winter? If I choose to buy a new queen should I wait a few more days and make sure I'm not blind? Overall, I don't feel like I'm in to big of a bind for a newb. I can always combine this hive with others as a last resort and take my losses in the summer. View Quote |
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Originally Posted By cuttingedge:
I would let them make their own for now! View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By cuttingedge:
Originally Posted By BustinCaps:
Update on my emergency swarm prevention splits. Two new hives with original queens: Both queens present and laying, two new frames built with comb in each, 8 frames total. No queen cells in sight. Removed excluders from bottom board, added second deep. Original two hives: Introduced two queens last Wednesday morning after 3 days queenless. One hive has queen present today. Gentle but active, no queen cells. Other hive, no queen or eggs after checking 20 frames. Bees everywhere. A few frames of older capped brood. Lots of honey. Tons of capped swarm and supercedure cells. Packed to the gills with bees. Very loud and mean enough to put gloves on. This last hive now leaves me in a bind. Do I order another queen and try again? Should I let them raise one? If they have been queenless 10 days, and I raise a new one will the hive be at risk for failure this winter? If I choose to buy a new queen should I wait a few more days and make sure I'm not blind? Overall, I don't feel like I'm in to big of a bind for a newb. I can always combine this hive with others as a last resort and take my losses in the summer. Should i start feeding them to keep stores up? I'm kind of shocked by how strong these hives got two months after being packages. My biggest unexpected event so far in the beekeeping journey. |
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http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1601943_.html
"We choose to go to the can. We choose to go to the can in this week and not do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" |
Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
Yes, worst case, she'll bail, but some of the bees from the original hive may go with her, because they'll follow her scent. Still...some of them will not abandon the brood, so you will still have a hive. Whether that queen gets mated and becomes viable...time will tell. If I had a deep and a queen excluder, I'd put them in there tomorrow. The rest of the bees might vamoose...but it's unlikely, if the queen can't go. USUALLY it's the mated queen who leaves with the hive. I'm sure sometimes they could possibly swarm with a virgin queen, but that's not to their benefit, and they're (usually) not stupid. View Quote I didn't check the other hive. I'll probably check it tomorrow to make sure the queen cells are capped, then leave it alone for a week to see if I have a laying queen. |
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Originally Posted By Martlet:
I moved her from the NUC to a 10 frame deep today. She'd already started laying in the NUC and it looked like they'd enticed some bees from the original hive over. I added an excluder to the bottom board. I didn't check the other hive. I'll probably check it tomorrow to make sure the queen cells are capped, then leave it alone for a week to see if I have a laying queen. View Quote |
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Originally Posted By BustinCaps:
That's my thought. This hive is loaded with honey, and without a queen, they are sticking nectar everywhere. It's already so strong of a hive, with good stores, that a population dip doesn't seem like the end of the world. Mites should be well behind the curve, too, with basically no capped brood by the time the new queen starts laying? Should i start feeding them to keep stores up? I'm kind of shocked by how strong these hives got two months after being packages. My biggest unexpected event so far in the beekeeping journey. View Quote |
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Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
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Originally Posted By Martlet:
I moved her from the NUC to a 10 frame deep today. She'd already started laying in the NUC and it looked like they'd enticed some bees from the original hive over. I added an excluder to the bottom board. I didn't check the other hive. I'll probably check it tomorrow to make sure the queen cells are capped, then leave it alone for a week to see if I have a laying queen. View Quote |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
|
Originally Posted By BustinCaps:
That's my thought. This hive is loaded with honey, and without a queen, they are sticking nectar everywhere. It's already so strong of a hive, with good stores, that a population dip doesn't seem like the end of the world. Mites should be well behind the curve, too, with basically no capped brood by the time the new queen starts laying? Should i start feeding them to keep stores up? I'm kind of shocked by how strong these hives got two months after being packages. My biggest unexpected event so far in the beekeeping journey. View Quote Maybe not, but betcha. |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
|
Originally Posted By cuttingedge:
That depends on what the flow is like in your area and if you have honey supers on. View Quote Notice that in the interim, while there is no queen to lay eggs, they are filling the space with stores, if I'm reading you right. Make SURE there is space in that hive for the new queen to lay once she is mated. |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
I have a massive swarm right now. They are high enough I need to hook the branch with a rake to shake it. The bark is very rough, and about 10-15% of the bees stay in it. The rest are all over a hive and canvas cloth.
Do I need to remove every bee from the branch or will they eventually enter the hive? The hive has some drawn comb in it already from a friends package that absconded after install. (Emergency acquisition! lol) |
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"We choose to go to the can. We choose to go to the can in this week and not do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" |
This swarm issued from the "queenless" hive. Whoops!
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http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1601943_.html
"We choose to go to the can. We choose to go to the can in this week and not do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
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Originally Posted By BustinCaps:
I have a massive swarm right now. They are high enough I need to hook the branch with a rake to shake it. The bark is very rough, and about 10-15% of the bees stay in it. The rest are all over a hive and canvas cloth. Do I need to remove every bee from the branch or will they eventually enter the hive? The hive has some drawn comb in it already from a friends package that absconded after install. (Emergency acquisition! lol) View Quote So...you have "THE CHOICE" we all face.. Do you get up there and brush them off, knowing you might roll and harm the queen? or do you wait and see if she's in the bunch on the hive? If they are not going in, she's probably not IN the hive. Wherever most of the bees are balling, she's probably under that. |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
|
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Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Veteran of the Third Battle of Tannhauser Gate.
NM, USA
|
They might even slow her down and basically say, "hold up there," until some new bees hatch, if they can't keep up. View Quote |
Dont you know about sergeants?
Well... I'm learning. They dont have mothers. Just ask any trained private. They reproduce by fission... like all bacteria. |
Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
Oh. I think I would get a frame of comb out of that hive and stick it in the new body and see what happens. See if they'll go in. Might totally bomb. Might be a dumb idea. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
Originally Posted By BustinCaps:
This swarm issued from the "queenless" hive. Whoops! I think I would get a frame of comb out of that hive and stick it in the new body and see what happens. See if they'll go in. Might totally bomb. Might be a dumb idea. Will bees swarm that big without a queen? I thought the queen was a necessary item. |
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http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1601943_.html
"We choose to go to the can. We choose to go to the can in this week and not do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
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Originally Posted By FrankSymptoms:
They can stop making new comb, for one thing. Isn't that how they regulate laying? View Quote They stop making new comb for several reasons, and one of the biggest regulators of that is daylength and honey flow, but in my view, a growing hive should be building comb up through the middle of the summer, when they start slowing down a lot. NOW....that's HERE. Beekeeping in your part of the country is a different thing. But the basic behavior would remain consistent, and it's my belief that the workers control the queen's every action and activity, more or less. |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
|
Originally Posted By BustinCaps:
I'm betting on my own incompetence at this point with regards to queenlessness. They have come off the branch. Not matching right into the hive, but some bees are entering. Will bees swarm that big without a queen? I thought the queen was a necessary item. View Quote Do colonies EVER leave without a queen? Yes, but I tend to think of that more as absconding, and usually, almost everybody would leave. And that would happen probably becausue something was very, very wrong. Now...the fact that they've been really mean.....that's a fact to consider, but you've looked at the hive, and know there's not some kind of weird thing going on that would be pissing them off, so.. Bet there's a queen in there. |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
The bees are mostly entering the hive, slowly. There appears to be a bunch of fighting going on, and some dead bees on the cloth.
Normal or wtf? |
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http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1601943_.html
"We choose to go to the can. We choose to go to the can in this week and not do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
|
Without a queen, a colony is doomed.
For them to leave without a queen, USUALLY mated (though not always) is death to the colony. That'd be a last resort, unless something is very off. |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
KY, USA
|
Originally Posted By BustinCaps:
The bees are mostly entering the hive, slowly. There appears to be a bunch of fighting going on, and some dead bees on the cloth. Normal or wtf? View Quote Unless you took my experimental advice and moved a frame. If you did that, then yeah, maybe some fighting. |
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe |
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