cutout

[drobbins]

hey folks

had an opportunity to do a "relatively easy" cutout today
they were in an abandoned house that was scheduled to be torn down, so no concern about damage to the building
got a little advice from iddee (thanks [img]smile.gif[/img] ) so we had a plan but of course once you start tearing the house apart the plans go out the window
we thought they were in the wall on the second floor accesible from the inside so no ladders
turns out they were in the floor which was a problem
the combs were attached to the floor so when we tore the floor up there was no way to not damage the comb pretty bad
it was messy and my confidence we got the queen is low but we got a lot of brood wired into frames so hopefully they can raise a queen if they need to
lot's of fun
great experience

http://www.drobbins.net/bee's/cutout/

Dave

[size="1"][ May 21, 2006, 05:54 PM: Message edited by: drobbins ][/size]

[RAlex]

Hi Dan...After tying the brood into the frames and placing them into boxes , did you happen to see any of them fanning ...sorta to spread the queens scent around ? Nice Pic`s ! ...Rick

[iddee]

Two items...
1st, why didn't you take some pictures?
2nd, You really need to wear a little protective equip. when you do something like that.
:confused:

Hope you got her. If not, grab a frame of eggs from your best hive and let them raise a queen with the favorable genetics.

[power napper]

Nice photos! That nice clean suit got dirty.

[drobbins]

woohoo!!

I got queen cells [img]smile.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img]

Dave

[BerkeyDavid]

Hey way to go Dave! Thanks for the pics!

[drobbins]

Thanks David

I'm thinking I'm probably going to need to shake a few more bees in this nuc before the queen is mated and her brood starts emerging
any hints/pointers on the right and wrong way to do this?
they're in good shape now, I'm thinking down the road to handle attrition

Dave

[drobbins]

well, they now have about a half dozen capped queen cells spread between 2 different frames
I thought I would steal some resources from another hive and split the queen cells between 2 nucs and get 2 hives out of it
pitfalls to this plan??
I figured if I end up with a frame of brood from a donor hive, a frame of honey and the frame with the queen cell (which also has some brood)in each nuc I should be in pretty good shape
should I take the resources from the donor hive 24 hrs prior to combining?
will the bees from the donor hive tears down the queen cells if I don't??

Dave

[Michael Bush]

>well, they now have about a half dozen capped queen cells spread between 2 different frames
I thought I would steal some resources from another hive and split the queen cells between 2 nucs and get 2 hives out of it
pitfalls to this plan??

Sounds like a plan.

>I figured if I end up with a frame of brood from a donor hive, a frame of honey and the frame with the queen cell (which also has some brood)in each nuc I should be in pretty good shape
should I take the resources from the donor hive 24 hrs prior to combining?

12 hours would do. That's what I'd do. 12 to 24 hours before.

>will the bees from the donor hive tears down the queen cells if I don't

No likely if you set up the nuc 12 hours before and then add the queen cells.

[Hobie]

Great photos! Here's an off-topic question: What finish do you have on your nuc? I like the look, compared to plain white. (And I am a total newbie at this, so if hive bodies need to be white, someone please slap me and tell me so!)

[drobbins]

Hobie

it's called Cetol
google for it
it's used on log homes and houses with wooden siding
(it's also used on boat woodwork}
hold up to weather real well
it's to expensive to use on beehives, I just had some sitting in my garage waiting to dry up that was left over from building a house a few years ago so it was free to me

Dave

[Hobie]

Cetol... I know it well! I do some sailing (and teak maintenance) in my free time. Thanks!

[ScadsOBees]

Nice pic! I'm looking forward to my first cutout.

Did you use a bee vac?

Is it necessary to have a bee vac to do a cutout?

-rick

[drobbins]

>Did you use a bee vac?

nope, we used a crowbar and a claw hammer
we ripped the floor up to get at the combs and after we got all the comb out and tied into frames the remaining bees (lot's of em) were going and clustering hanging from the bottom side of the floor at the edge of the holes we'd made
we walked away and took a 10 minute break and when we went back the vast majority were in this cluster, presumably with the queen
so we slid a telescoping nuc cover under them upside down so it was like a shallow box and then smacked the floor above the cluster with a hammer
this knocked em into the lid and we dumped em in our catch box
we repeated this about 3 or 4 times and had most of em
all told we got about 8 frames partially filled with brood
my buddy took half and apparently got the queen
I took the other half and now with a little luck I'll make it into 2 hives [img]smile.gif[/img]

Dave

[Hobie]

I was just wondering... who took the pictures, and what were they wearing? I'm tying to figure out how to get photos of the impending removal from my barn wall, but I have to do it myself. I'll get honey on the camera...

[drobbins]

I took the pictures
me and a buddy did the cutout
that's him in the pics
I was wearing shorts and a tee shirt like iddee would [img]smile.gif[/img]
just kidding, I was suited up
I just left the camera on the floor and occationally slipped a glove off and took a pic the sat the camera back down and back on with the glove
wasn't to bad
the bees were surprisingly tame, but I still wanted gloves

Dave

[iddee]

T-shirt or no shirt, maybe. Shorts...Not since I was 7 years old...

[ScadsOBees]

"T-shirt or no shirt, maybe. Shorts...Not since I was 7 years old"

I don't know you but I'm guessing that the above statement is a "THANK GOODNESS!!!" statement....whiter than the dot on my new queens back...

[iddee]

If you mean tannable, no, I tan quite well. Long story, but I bought my own long pants from shining shoes and running errands at the age of 7, and never put on a pair of short pants afterward.