[Jackam]

I have an opportunity.
An old woman that I know has honey bees entering her house between the vinyl siding and the brick. She wants them gone but is in no hurry, which is good because I have no place to put them yet!
I'll get the makings for another hive while I figure this one out.



I watched this video and it seems they have the same situation except they are on a ladder, I will be at ground level. It looks pretty straight forward to me (says the man who's never done it!)

I have no idea how long the bees have been there. The woman didn't know anything about them.
My question is this - If I get a 10 frame deep setup (which is what my other hives are) and it turns out to be a very small colony, what then? I don't want to get a bunch of different size "just in case" supers...

I guess that wall void has extra space, what would be the difference?!

 

[bevy's honeybees]

I often have a lot of space in the deep box and here in Fla I think it doesn't matter. I use foundationless frames, and keep bees to one side and they fill out the box eventually. I'm sure a follower board would be a big help; one of those things I keep meaning to get/make and haven't done it yet. I also would like to know if I'm slowing things by not having a follower board, so I'm glad you are asking the question.

 

[Erik]

My question is this - If I get a 10 frame deep setup (which is what my other hives are) and it turns out to be a very small colony, what then? I don't want to get a bunch of different size "just in case" supers...

I guess that wall void has extra space, what would be the difference?!

If your existing hive equipment is 10-frame deep then get the same setup. Cutting out for medium frames is a waste of time and effort. If they don't fill up a 10-frame deep then they'll have room to grow or you can boost them by giving them a frame of honey and pollen from your existing strong hives.

Cutouts are time consuming, stressful, laborious work. Worth the experience of trying one but another consideration is that you may not want to try to frame honey comb that is new/white/soft. Crush/strain it and feed it back to them once they're in their new home. Better yet, take capped frames of honey and pollen from your strong hives and give that capped honey to the cutout. Crush all the cutout honey comb and feed that to your strong hive. The strong hive can prevent robbing better than your fresh cutout could, and if feeding is going to set off robbing don't do that to the newly cutout hive.

 

[Cub]

Just put them in your deep, and try to save as much brood and empty combs as possible. Leave the honey out of the new setup. If there are not enough combs to fill your box, give them drawn comb if you have any available. Reducing the entrance might be in order of you are feeding them.

My two cents.... I love cutouts and just did my 24th or so last week. What other hobby gets you paid, provides you with honey, and let's you do something decent for everyone?