Durandal
04-07-2008, 05:52 AM
The cut out went amazingly well yesterday. I have been planning this one since one warm week in January...if they had survived winter.
I am waiting on four nucs later this month and swarm season does not start for about another three to four weeks. Temsp were in the upper 60s to low 70s with a mild evening of upper 40s.
The colony itself seems extremely weak, which was dissapointing, but it was a fantastic experience. Took my time, had my gear together, a helper along, and two years of digesting forums and books.
Man, I was nervous as hell.
Sort of glad it turned out to be small.
So, I'll have more pics, but here are the highlights...
Not nearly as large as I had hoped. Lots of honey, probably about 80 lbs of it. A chunk of bee bread but the only brood ran along the top and almost all of it was damaged removing it. I got another container of about 18 gal volume worth of empty comb. It seemed like the queen was laying as far from the opening as possible and was confined by the massive amount of honey stores.
And yes, I nabbed the queen. Got her in a cage and placed her with some house bees in a box to await all the field bees I vacuumed up as they returned.
http://gallery.mac.com/thesw0rdofroland/100046/IMG_3904/web.jpg
http://gallery.mac.com/thesw0rdofroland/100046/IMG_3911/web.jpg
http://gallery.mac.com/thesw0rdofroland/100046/IMG_3927/web.jpg
http://gallery.mac.com/thesw0rdofroland/100046/IMG_3930/web.jpg
I put them in with 3 frames of honey and some capped pollen and a hive top feeder and some 1:1 syrup I mixed up a couple days ago.
The bee vac worked great and I think I lost, maybe 5 to 10% of what I sucked up. Not too sure if it was the bee vac, the tube, or hitting the plastic wall of the container.
I will not be surprised if I lose this colony. I do have the queen but I was worried about the comb. Some of it looked odd and decided to place them on foundation with three honey frames.
Not too sure if that was a good call or not. I wanted clean comb just incase they had been sprayed and do manage to make it.
There was no sign of sunken cappings or anything but there were capped cells (looked like pollen or honey cells) that were absolutely white (the cap that is).
Like I said, this may be a failure long term but I think I got some great experience from it.
I am waiting on four nucs later this month and swarm season does not start for about another three to four weeks. Temsp were in the upper 60s to low 70s with a mild evening of upper 40s.
The colony itself seems extremely weak, which was dissapointing, but it was a fantastic experience. Took my time, had my gear together, a helper along, and two years of digesting forums and books.
Man, I was nervous as hell.
Sort of glad it turned out to be small.
So, I'll have more pics, but here are the highlights...
Not nearly as large as I had hoped. Lots of honey, probably about 80 lbs of it. A chunk of bee bread but the only brood ran along the top and almost all of it was damaged removing it. I got another container of about 18 gal volume worth of empty comb. It seemed like the queen was laying as far from the opening as possible and was confined by the massive amount of honey stores.
And yes, I nabbed the queen. Got her in a cage and placed her with some house bees in a box to await all the field bees I vacuumed up as they returned.
http://gallery.mac.com/thesw0rdofroland/100046/IMG_3904/web.jpg
http://gallery.mac.com/thesw0rdofroland/100046/IMG_3911/web.jpg
http://gallery.mac.com/thesw0rdofroland/100046/IMG_3927/web.jpg
http://gallery.mac.com/thesw0rdofroland/100046/IMG_3930/web.jpg
I put them in with 3 frames of honey and some capped pollen and a hive top feeder and some 1:1 syrup I mixed up a couple days ago.
The bee vac worked great and I think I lost, maybe 5 to 10% of what I sucked up. Not too sure if it was the bee vac, the tube, or hitting the plastic wall of the container.
I will not be surprised if I lose this colony. I do have the queen but I was worried about the comb. Some of it looked odd and decided to place them on foundation with three honey frames.
Not too sure if that was a good call or not. I wanted clean comb just incase they had been sprayed and do manage to make it.
There was no sign of sunken cappings or anything but there were capped cells (looked like pollen or honey cells) that were absolutely white (the cap that is).
Like I said, this may be a failure long term but I think I got some great experience from it.