I lost a hive over the winter. This hive consisting of two deep boxes will soon be the home of a new package of bees. I fed heavily going into late summer and early fall. This has left me with one box of "honey" and one box that had contained the dead bees. The frames from the lower box have some old pollen and some thick shiny substance that I don`t know anything about. I shook out all the dead bees. They were mostly face down in the comb. I caught a swarm off my thriving hive earlier this week and placed this in this box with these frames only to find the swarm gone the next afternoon. I dont want my new package to leave . I`m planning on putting a couple of frames of brood from my thriving hive in with the hew package and putting frames from the dead hive into my thriving hive to be cleaned and used in it. I really wanted to start my package on drawn comb, but not if there is something that will make them leave. Will it be too much work for the package to clean up these old frames? So like I said, "what to do?"
Sounds like you learned out how to lock the barn after your first horse was stolen! Your plan is sound. Do it late in the day and the bees will be much more apt to settle down with their new brood and work on chewing the candy out to release their queen.
If you didn't do it before, I would prob put in an entrance reducer. It will make them feel more secure maybe. If you really want to make sure they stay, you can put in a queen excluder below the brood, for the first week maybe. It will make sure the queen can't leave, but also means the drones can't leave.
I lost a hive over the winter. ... The frames from the lower box have some old pollen and some thick shiny substance that I don`t know anything about. ... "what to do?"
Are you sure the thick shiny substance isn't AFB (American Foul Brood)? I'd be sure to have someone experienced check the old frames before reusing. Good luck.
Bees face down in the comb usually means they starved, maybe the cluster couldn't make it to the "honey." I just wanted to point out though that the next swarm you catch, give them a frame of open brood from another hive. They are very reluctant to leave brood so usually stick around. However, if they have already decided on a new location only a nuclear warhead will stop them from leaving. I've had a couple of swarms leave my box with open brood inside and fly right back to where I caught them and then fly on and inhabit someone's house.
Thank you all for your input. I took a better look at he " thick shiny" stuff and it is "honey" that was never capped. Again thanks.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Beesource Beekeeping Forums
1.8M posts
54.7K members
Since 1999
A forum community dedicated to beekeeping, bee owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about breeding, honey production, health, behavior, hives, housing, adopting, care, classifieds, and more!