Spraying Sugar water on bees......

[Steve C]

Today....

I sprayed 1:1 sugar water on the bees....

They were hauling out dyeing bees all day... about 50, 75, 100 over the day....???? They were not totaly dead when the good bees were hauling them out of the hive....

Was this wrong..... I just bought the spraying container from Wally-world...??

Should it have been 1:2 ?????

Thanks....

[ September 30, 2006, 08:03 PM: Message edited by: Steve C ]

[iddee]

Why would you spray sugar water on the bees?

[Steve C]

Re-queening Them dang ole Italian's

[Christopher Petree]

You don't need to spray sugar water on the bees to requeen them. How did you go about requeening?

[Steve C]

Well....

I pulled out the old queen and put here in a Nuc Thursday afternoon...
I put the new queen into the hive in a ez cage this morning but I sprayed them a little with 1:1....

I saw Keith Dealaplane's viedo's and read a book on spraying them down to mask the smell of the new bee's..... to help out....

The queen is still alive and alot of the bee's are also... Its just I have never seen so many dead out front till I did spray them....

[lazybeestudio.com]

I'm not sure what the temps are like down there in NC. But, here it is C-O-L-D. Wet bees (or humidity in the hive) and cold temps are a deadly combo. I'd try using lemongrass or Honey-B-Healthy and just rub a few drops on the queen cage if you are having problems introducing Queens.

Also, it is easier to introduce a new queen into a nuc and then swap them (the queens) out later. There are a few methods of introducing them back into a full hive.

http://www.lazybeestudio.com - 866-LAZY-BEE
Beekeeping and Soapmaking Supplies

[lazybeestudio.com]

Just to clarify the above statement on Nucs:

One method to try is, you can make up a temporary Nuc with with bees from your old hive (mostly nurse bees and brood and food) and add the new queen. Get them going for a week or two after release and then you can recombine them a day after pulling the old queen from the old hive. You can make a board that covers the old hive body with an opening big enough for the nuc body, placing the newspaper above the board. The bees will unite in a few days.

This is certainly a complex method, but it works very well. If you are requeening Russians with non-Russian stock, you may have to resort to something like this.

http://www.lazybeestudio.com - 866-LAZY-BEE
Beekeeping and Soapmaking Supplies

[Michael Bush]

I always use 1:2 (1 part sugar to 2 parts water) when spraying bees.

[Christopher Petree]

Steve C, a method that has worked well for me with requeening is removing the old queen and letting the hive stay queenless over night or for 24 hrs., then introduce the new queen the next day. This allows some of the old queen's pheromones to disipate and the bees will be more accepting once they realize they are queenless. This method has some disadvantages, but I have had very good rates of acceptance. No sugar spray needed.

[Steve C]

Yep.... I did that but it was 34 hr's.....

my thinking was that they would lick down the area and cage and then find the queen there....

It kinda looks like they are trying to feed her through the cage, not fighting it though....

I checked on her again today.... and still looks good...
I hope they have her out soon.... if not by Tues... I will take her out them for sure.....


I think now that when I sprayed with 1:1 it was to thick... and they just drowned/cloged up the breathing tube....with sugar water.....????
I don't know....
There is not anymore dying like Sat.... So hopefully it is over with..... ;)

Thanks

[Michael Bush]

I use think syrup and I only mist then slightly Bees soaked in syrup die, as you say, they drown.