Repeat Customer

[WVbeekeeper]

I sold a colony to a fella last June. I took the queen from one of my best colonies with three frames of brood and a frame each of pollen and honey. I put this in a ten frame deep with five more frames of foundation. I felt like I may have charged him a little much ($250?) but he seemed satisfied with the deal. Anyway he stopped by today. He didn't want another colony but wanted some equipment (a complete deep for $100) to catch the swarm which emerged from the nuc I sold him last year. I was glad he stopped by because I wanted to get in touch with him because I'd like to raise some queens from that one and I have been kicking myself in the rearend ever since I let her go. However, I am glad that I did give him a good one because otherwise he may not have come back wanting to do more business. Not only did I gain someone who wants to do business with me now but I also have access to graft from that queen, provided he got back in time to catch the swarm before it moves on. It feels good when someone comes back to you because you did the right the first time.

[kc in wv]

You are not the only that got over $200 for bee's in WV. I know of a beekeeper that sold 3 for 225 and the purchaser wanted more this year.

[iddee]

If you go over there now, there are about ten capped queen cells in his hive. Remember, she leaves with the swarm about the 14th day. You won't have to graft, just make up a few nucs with the capped cells that are already there. I did a removal Yesterday that had swarmed Tuesday. There were about 15 capped cells. I made up 1 hive and 3 nucs. All will be emerged by Monday, latest.

[WVbeekeeper]

Excellent thinking, Iddee. I think I'll make a trip later today.

[WVbeekeeper]

I just got off of the phone with the fella, he didn't make it back in time to catch the swarm so I won't be able to do any grafting from her. However, he was agreeable when I offered to come over and show him how to make a nuc and take some of those queen cells off of his hands.

[WVbeekeeper]

Thanks for the suggestion, Iddee. I went out there yesterday and took four monster queen cells out of the hive. The hive was still busting at the seams after throwing off the primary swarm so I split it for the the guy. Hopefully they won't throw any secondary or tertiary swarms. I took four mini nucs with me to put the queen cells in and left them there. There were not any queen cells capped yet in the hive, which conflicts what I mostly hear about the queen leaving when the cells are about ready to hatch or that she leaves when they are capped. The cells were almost capped. Hopefully the nucs capped them last night as they were almost capped over. This gives me a good idea of when the queen should be laying. I'll go back in a few weekends to see if they are laying and bring them home.

[Chef Isaac]

Please keep us updates!

[WVbeekeeper]

Please keep us updates!

Here's a few pics.

Queen cell, almost capped.

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/100_0355.jpg

As I went through the hive finding the cells I split the hive down into two single deeps. I stocked the nucs with the cells as they were cut out.

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/100_0369.jpg

The nucs are with the hive (or now hives) on the northern bank of the Big Coal River.

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/100_0368.jpg

I used some of my feral queens to stock the nucs with also. I think once they mate with the drones from the colony there that they should make a pretty good cross.

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/100_0366.jpg

I'll be sure to let you know what happens, Chef.