Since I got an ultrabreeze suit last summer and wear it when opening hives, the only time I've been stung was when I was just sitting out by my garden and forgot a bee was hanging out with me. When...
Type: Posts; User: Dana
Since I got an ultrabreeze suit last summer and wear it when opening hives, the only time I've been stung was when I was just sitting out by my garden and forgot a bee was hanging out with me. When...
If you give them a frame of open brood from another hive (without adhering bees) it will help anchor them. I don't think you should lock them in though. They need to be able to fly and ventilate.
...
Well, next time use a swarm catcher that has frames, so the comb will be in them already. :) What you're doing now is called a cutout. If you search for cutouts in the forum search box, you'll...
If they already have brood, then it seems unnecessary. The reason for adding brood is to help convince them to stay. They are less likely to leave if there is brood.
Get some rubber bands and fit the comb inside the frame. The bees will attach it to the frame. Here's some pictures of how I did it when I had to put comb into frames after a bit of a meltdown:...
I've seen it take a queen from one week to 4 weeks to start laying after emergence in my observation hive. If you don't see eggs at 2 weeks post emergence, I'd hedge my bets and put in a frame with...
If they are not coming at your hands and hive tool, then they're okay. It took a bit of getting used to for me when I first started. That being said, even if it's a beautiful day, if there's no...
Were that actively coming at you or just going about their business?
That's great! And nice kid's size bee suit. I need to get one of those. I always put my the ankle parts of my suit on the outside of my boots though. Not sure if it matters. I found a few...
Reminds me of persimmon.
If you don't have enough frames to fill that box, you might want to put *something* there so they don't make a mess. Block off the part of the hive that doesn't have frames. Otherwise, it will...
If you have a frame with eggs/young larva, you can place it in the hive. If they have no queen they will start building queen cells. At least then you will know.
Are you sure you have enough bees to keep the brood warm and raise queen cells? Did you shake in some extra nurse bees when you stocked the hive?
I also keep foam board over the glass on my...
Here's what happened in my observation hive recently after I had removed the original queen and most the bees, so they were raising emergency queens. They had only 1 drawn frame (plus 3 empties) and...
I think you'd have to be careful about the new small hives getting robbed if there's a dearth. But, if you can keep that from happening, I can't think of anything bad about it.
Are you sure the queenless hive didn't make a queen? You split on 4/14, right? You could have a new queen in there already. She might not be laying yet though.
In my observation hive the bees hanging from undrawn frames are quite still. When they vibrate to keep the cluster warm, their wings do not move.
That's pretty chilly. They are clustering to keep warm. To draw wax, they have to have the area quite warm.
Both swarm and supersedure cells are plannned, it's emergency cells that are not planned.
Here's a good thread on the location of cells issue: http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?267676-Why-queen-cell-location&highlight=swarm+supersedure+cell+location
There are a lot more...
What was the temp when you looked at them? Did you look into the clump to see if they had drawn any comb yet? How large is the entrance to the hive?
The bees think they need a new queen. I would let them supersede.
You need to put the empty frames either between brood combs or *capped* honey. They would've probably done the same thing even if you had used foundation.
I used to be incredibly fearful of snakes, when I moved to the country one scared me all the way back to the house. I decided that I wanted to enjoy my land so I started learning everything I could...
My OH had very few bees in the winter and have built up so much I just took the queen and 3 of the 4 frames to make a new hive outside. Be sure to feed them as well as you can. As much trouble as...