new bees i need help

[poor man]

thanks guys, i just got an hive with bees in it, just brought it home last night so the girls are a lil upset right now my question is.. the guy i got them from had empty hives sitting there and a swarm set up home in one of them, BUT the hive wasnt sitting right, the supers (with no frames) are on the bottom and the brood boxes (with frames and foundation) are on top, and they have started building random comb in the supers below, i dont even know at this point where the queen is, so if i start rearanging the boxes and hunting for the queen Now with them just being moved will they leave? or just be verry unhappy with me

thanks and sorry for the long post.....

[hummingberd]

Hey poor man, how's the weather there? I'm sure your temps are pretty consistently warm.

You could rip the whole thing apart of you want. Find your queen first and then go from there. A cute little trick I use is to look for the frame with the smallest larvae or most eggs. Usually she's there. Also, pay attention to where "most" of the bees are.

If you can't find her, or are nervous about disrupting them, you could just put the supers on top, and the hive bodies on bottom. Assuming you have 2 deep or medium hive bodies, there should be more bees in one than the other. Put the box with the most bees on the bottom and the other on top. Then you can put the supers on top. Theoretically, they may move out of the supers and you can then pull them off, clean out any crazy comb and put some frames in when you're ready.

Hope this helps. I'm pretty new at this too, but that's what I'd do...

[poor man]

Hey poor man, how's the weather there? I'm sure your temps are pretty consistently warm.

You could rip the whole thing apart of you want. Find your queen first and then go from there. A cute little trick I use is to look for the frame with the smallest larvae or most eggs. Usually she's there. Also, pay attention to where "most" of the bees are.

If you can't find her, or are nervous about disrupting them, you could just put the supers on top, and the hive bodies on bottom. Assuming you have 2 deep or medium hive bodies, there should be more bees in one than the other. Put the box with the most bees on the bottom and the other on top. Then you can put the supers on top. Theoretically, they may move out of the supers and you can then pull them off, clean out any crazy comb and put some frames in when you're ready.

Hope this helps. I'm pretty new at this too, but that's what I'd do...

Thanks, i just didnt want to loose them all on my first day out

im getting ready to go play now

its up to the 80s here day and 55-65 at night ...

[Michael Bush]

"Random comb" I assume is going every which way? No foundation? I don't know, but on a nice day I'd go through every thing and get it right. Any wild comb I'd cut out and tie into frames. Put it in the order you want it. Make sure there is foundation or some kind of guide in every comb and no empty spaces and ten frames in every box that doesn't have drawn comb in it.

[poor man]

"Random comb" I assume is going every which way? No foundation? I don't know, but on a nice day I'd go through every thing and get it right. Any wild comb I'd cut out and tie into frames. Put it in the order you want it. Make sure there is foundation or some kind of guide in every comb and no empty spaces and ten frames in every box that doesn't have drawn comb in it.

Hi, random comb was in the supers that were "under" the brood boxes. there was no foundation or frames in the supers so the just went to town making the comb the way they wanted it i just came in from pizzing them off real bad i put the good brood frames with bees/good comb in my brood boxes and put a new brood box with frames/foundation on top of that, so i have a bottom brood with 10 drawn frames with about 4 frames covered heavly with bees on the bottom and the other new brood box on top. wait and see now gonna let them settle down a bit, im glad i had a suit and vail today boy did they get upset with me LOL thanks for the help im sure il be back with more stupid questions...........shan