Thanks for posting the info Michael. It was actually pretty similar to what I did, except I left the colony hopelessly queenless for about 24 hours. Sounds like a solid plan for the future.
Type: Posts; User: Capricorn
Thanks for posting the info Michael. It was actually pretty similar to what I did, except I left the colony hopelessly queenless for about 24 hours. Sounds like a solid plan for the future.
Maybe it indicates multiple queens in the colony.
I think moving the frame of bees with the queen is what I'll do in the future. I'm surprised I hadn't read more about this. All the text out there seems to be about introducing caged queens.
Interesting follow up.. The colony I thought was queenless ended up raising a queen. She just hadn't started laying yet, but by the time I check last she had. So cool. Then on to a different...
I've brought home two swarms in copy paper boxes. I poked a lot of small holes. Worked well enough to hold them for under 24 hours. In both instances they started to pull comb in the boxes.
David,
This is what I'd like to do. I try to keep it simple, and this seems easier then a cage intro. She is on 3 frames right now, so I was thinking of plopping them all in an upper top corner...
The queen isn't that precious, but if I need to requeen this colony, I really want to get a laying queen in right away so there isn't wasted brood production time.
Thanks much for your feedback...
Oh man, this last weekend, after feeling a gal walking up the inside of the back of knee, I quickly put a frame back in the hive I was inspecting, and did a bow legged walk into the house. I was...
Also, last year I set up a bait box at home and a swarm filled it. Just used some lemon grass oil and a bit of old comb. I don't think it was from my bees.
Last weekend I was at the dump and a beautiful swarm flew over head! I pointed it out to the folks around me, and I of course followed it as far as I could. It looked like it came from the woods and...
They are loads of fun to watch if you have time :)
I pulled the queen and a few frames from a booming production colony a while back, as it looked to me like they were starting swarm preps. 2 weeks ago I moved a few frames of capped cells to a queen...
So the follow up.... This weeks inspection showed me a queen.. I was ready to plop in a frame of eggs from somewhere, but then I saw here wandering around... I haven't found any eggs yet, but I think...
My first year I made a point to go glove-less as much as I could for some reason. Not sure why. Didn't really get stung on my hands much though. Now I really like the long leather gloves that are...
If you don't want it you should process it minimally and sell it. It's a commodity and I doubt you'll have any trouble. I've been bringing water to a very light boil and melting down my wax in...
Sometimes nature doesn't cooperate with your best laid plans. Sometimes you are harvesting before a fall flow, and assuming the bees are going to bring in some amount of honey for that flow. If the...
The local bee supply place out here, Glory Bee Foods, rents an extractor for the weekend for something like 10$. Hard to beat that. I did crush and strain my first couple years, I think its great,...
You can look up the active ingredients in the spray and then research how much they sink into combs. Someone's probably done a study on it.
This last weekend I discovered one of my colonies had turned laying worker. It's a nuc sized colony in a single 10-frame deep. I have a queen I just raised that just started laying in a queen...
Catch a swarm or do a cut out :)
Thanks for the feed back, I wasn't sure...
I had one hive come down with dysentery this spring. It was on the inside of the boxes. They had pretty much a deep and medium full of honey. I've been expanding the brood nest, hoping they...
So I noticed the other day that one of my hives seems to have a lot of fecal spotting on the front and landing board. So this would be a strong indication of Nosema? But it might not be Nosema? ...
Last year I used a hand held jigsaw. Worked nice, clean cut. Somewhat messy, but better then the other method I tried, which was a utility knife. I haven't tried a table saw.
If you can rob a frame of honey from another hive to put in it might be better then a feeder. Keeping the entrance reduced is the main thing that I do to try to stop robbing. Usually seems to work...