How early can I do a cut out.

**Stanisr** · 02-13-2011, 07:16 PM

Last fall I was given a hive in a hollow tree that had been cut down. It was late in the fall and I decided to let them over winter in the log. Now that spring is just around the corner, when should I do the cut out in order to transfer them into a hive. I checked them today and they were flying, but no pollen.

**Daddy'sBees** · 02-13-2011, 07:24 PM

Stanisr,

I am south of you in central Texas. I am waiting to do some cut-outs also. I am waiting for some "green" to show up in my area. These heavy freezes are keeping Spring in check. I want to wait so I won't have to do a lot of feeding, and the bees have nectar available to them. Give it 3-4 weeks.

Daddy's Bees
____________

**tommyt** · 02-14-2011, 06:04 AM

Reading (Give it 3-4 weeks)
Has gotten me thinking do you have the approx.temperature in mind or
do you base your C-O's to the Bloom/Flow?
Just wanting to hear what folks feel is the safest and why.
Thanks
Tom

**bigbore** · 02-14-2011, 07:32 AM

I prefer to wait until the nightly temps are above about 50 F just so I don't have to worry about them clustering too tight. The cutout is tramatic for them, so I don't want to be to rough for them to make adjustments to.

**Daddy'sBees** · 02-14-2011, 07:56 AM

You are correct BigBore. It(temp) probably works about the same for me. I'm looking for some of that "new green" look we get in the spring. I feel things are ripe then, for bees to quickly recover because of favorable temps, and plenty of available nectar and pollen for them to work with.

**Tagcon** · 02-14-2011, 09:28 AM

I'm not trying to hyjack this thread but does anybody here use the queen excluder method to do their splits and if so please explain the how to?

**Beetrucker74** · 02-14-2011, 10:18 AM

Originally Posted by Stanisr

Last fall I was given a hive in a hollow tree that had been cut down. It was late in the fall and I decided to let them over winter in the log. Now that spring is just around the corner, when should I do the cut out in order to transfer them into a hive. I checked them today and they were flying, but no pollen.

I would wait till spring is in full swing cause you will have them open long time. You will have to split the log, make 2 saw cuts down the sides of the log( Use skil saw)then split with wedge and hammer. cut the comb out and wire into frames try to find the queen when doing this so she is unhurt and make shure you are putting the comb in the frames with the cells oriented the way they are in the log. Cells slant up a bit. If you have frames of honey around you just have to get the brood from the log and giver her some frames of honey then let them rob the log. That is how I did the last one I was given. Oh and be ready they will not like any of this and will be hot for a week or so.

Hope that helps.
Jason

**Stanisr** · 02-14-2011, 10:33 AM

OK, I am hearing that the best time to do the cut out is after the spring bloom, but another question I have is should I feed and how much between now and then.

**Jpoindexter** · 02-14-2011, 11:02 AM

You should feed them if they dont have any stores. Feed them as much as they'll take. I had a 5 frame Nuc that consumes a 1 qt jar every day last summer. The cooler weather slows them down, I'd say about a qt every 3 to 4 days in central to South Texas.

**Beetrucker74** · 02-14-2011, 12:27 PM

Ok I am lost, you said you have a colony in a log that you need cut out. Or are you tring to figure out when you can " Split" the log colony?

if that is the case next year since they will not have the brood or stores to Split, you have to get them out of the log then let them recover. Basicly by the time you get them out of the log they will be a Nuc because of all the stress and damage you will do to get them out. How do you feed log bees anyway(other than open feed)? Unless this log is gigantic with very large Hollow so they have lots of brood. But my guess is that you will end up with 2 or 3 frames of brood that you will have to cut and wire into frames and some honey that I would let the bees rob out after you get the brood out, but put in a frame or 2 of honey from another hive so that if there is bad weather after you get them out so they will not starve. If there is lots of brood you could put the queen with 2 frames brood in one supper with honey on both sides put on an excluder then wire the rest of the brood into frames placeing them above the excluder with honey on both sides of the brood. You can do this till you run out of brood, honey or bees. Let sit till next night or the next day if rainy(this will let the bees cover the brood right) then remove and put queens in all but the one with a queen or wait 3 days after you stack down and put in ripe cells in with cage that will hatch that day or the next. If you use cells don't look at them for 2 weeks so she mates right. Good luck log bees are a pain but if they really are feral( you can tell by the comb the darker it is the more brood there has bin though it, unless many swarms liked that tree

) you will have good bees for the area you are in.

**Stanisr** · 02-14-2011, 01:30 PM

What I want to do is simply remove the colony from the log into a hive. I have a standard hive mounted on top of the log, forcing the bees to enter and exit through the hive. This allows me to put a feeder in the hive and they enter the hive to take the syrup, last fall they even began guarding the hive entrance as if they were in the hive. I hoped they would move into the hive on their own, but don't really think it will happen.