[Lauri]

The old ladies are getting remarked as I break up their larger hives.

Those that mark with disks, what glue are you using? Someone suggested tightbond II, but it takes too long to dry and by the next day the disk comes off. I did some with fletching super glue last year that is pressure sensitive. It worked great , but seems a little harsh.
Any suggestions for a nontoxic glue that dries fast?

Although she is blond, she is out of a dark Carnie type. If daughters are this color, I'll call it my Buckskin Mt. line, LOL. Got to get horses in here somewhere

This is the same queen after overwintering the first time. After another winter she is not quite so shiney and new. She's darkened up a bit too. Little rough around the edges, but was still heading a healthy well populated four deep hive. She's now in a simulated or shook swarm in a new deep so I can find her to get some daughters.

I move the entire big hive several feet away and leave a new box in it's place with two frames of open brood, all adhearing young bees and the established queen.
Heres that box after about 1/2 hour after removing the big hive.

After about an hour:

ANd three hours. Most foragers have returned to this single deep:

After about 24 hours. They are taking up fortified 1:1 well and woofing on the small protein patty. I only give them a small one to start since they have little brood to feed.

I'll only have to feed them a few gallons of 1:1 until they get a good draw started on the frames. By the time the main flow starts they will once again be in 3 deeps if I let them get that big.

Starting to get the new frames drawn:

This deep must have had 10# of bees in it after 2 days. I gave them a second deep and moved the feeder to the top to relieve the congestion.


This is from another nuc. They are drawing the new design frame with 3/4 sheet of rite cell very nicely. No messes yet. I use the other 6 1/2" piece I cut off for my mating nuc frames.

I've got a lot of these 2012 queens I will be breaking up this year. It freshings up the old colony and gives me lots of nice newly drawn frames and lots of nucs. I did this last year with several hives and it was amazing to see them grab a gear in the production dept.

 

[Moots]

I don't mark, but do think the little disk looks pretty cool!

According to this thread I found, Titebond Gel Superglue is recommended...http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18525

Not sure if it would be any less toxic than the other Super Glue you used. :scratch:

Good luck!

 

[burns375]

I don't get the 2nd partof your post. What r u trying to accomplish?

 

[sqkcrk]

Lauri, can't you grow bigger queens? Dang.

 

[adamf]

Those that mark with disks, what glue are you using? Someone suggested tightbond II, but it takes too long to dry and by the next day the disk comes off. I did some with fletching super glue last year that is pressure sensitive. It worked great , but seems a little harsh.
Any suggestions for a nontoxic glue that dries fast?

Hi Lauri,
I'm surprised you did not have good luck with Tightbond II. We use it on all the queens we number and it is pretty effective.
Maybe try again? One thing I always do before gluing is to flatten the disk a little: that seems to help keep it on while the glue sets.

Good Luck,
Adam
vpqueenbees.com

 

[Lauri]

Thanks Adam. Are you using the wood glue or super glue?
I will slightly flaten the disk next time.

 

[Redbug]

Lauri...Those are some awesome pictures!

 

[Lauri]

I don't get the 2nd partof your post. What r u trying to accomplish?

This hive got big fast last year. I never did get into it to find the queen for grafting some daughters.
Here is the hive about 6 weeks ago..lucky I didn't lose it. I had recently taken off another fifth deep of capped honey before this storm hit. (Hive is four deeps to the right of the tree.)

So I moved the big hive and kept the queen in a hive I'll be able to find her in more easily without breaking my back. Also, the longevity of the 2 year old queens is questionable after heading sucha large colony for so long. I won't risk a big hive like this to overwinter for a third year until I see just how long these queens will live. Breaking up the hive into 8 nucs with 2014 queens + the older queens colony is a better bet to me. Letting a big hive just continue on for another year seems like kind of stagnent method of management. Sure, I'd get honey out of it, but I am not in it just for honey.

Here is the new deep on the old location:

After 2 days I gave them another deep since it was pretty packed with bees.

Really no hives at my place are interested in syrup in spring. They have enough stores and a light flow going on right now. So I had to be sure they would take up syrup before I continued on with this method. They did take it up so in the second deep I gave them another interior feeder for a total of 3 gallons of fortified 1:1 cane sugar, vinegar, electrolytes, citric acid mix. More protein mix too since I see they are willing to take it up.

New top deep..keep them drawing out new frames in the center. (Bottom frames were just about all started.) I used an interior feeder since temps are still cool here. Barely in the 50''s during the day. Low 40's and below at night. Same goes for the insulation on the sides. I notice they are rearing worker brood right up into to the end frames in the deeps with insulation still inplace between the hives.

Now if the hive had any mite issues, I would remove the first frame of capped brood in the simulated swarm colony and check them. But the mite check with my inserted drone frames in the big hive came out clean. By giving the new swarm colony only open brood, they do get a 'brood break' of sorts. A few days to groom off mites if they are present.

I usually don't make a habit of cutting out drone cells, but in theis case where I am breaking up this hive, I did to control the drone population. Lots of big mature drones already in the hive.

Chickens always appreciate the protein treat

Sometimes I get criticized for feeding. Some people are dead against it, no matter what the consequences.

I'm not thrilled about the labor, but love the results. Folks forget I am in it for the queens. And I feed at certain times for specific performance. I need strong overwintered hives and feeding the hives in late summer/fall with good protien makes for strong well populated hives in spring. Large populations for making lots of mating nucs as early as possible. I feed as little as possible, but treat my hives like athletes...managing them to peak at the proper times for the best performance possible.

Not to mention a well fed big hive will rear drones much earlier than other smaller colonies. These are all Carnie hybrids so they are frugal with their stores overwinter and fly during cooler temps to collect early feed in spring. A big population of straight Italians overwintering might be tricky.

Also another good reason to change out hives like this. Some older box's need to be refinished. Here you can see the burn and urethane finish didn't last well in my climate. Surprisingly, the burn color faded. Urethane cracked and flaked off, although it was supposed to be marine grade exterior. I'll take my propane torch and burn off the remaining urethane, then stain or paint it. I hate to cover up the wood grain. But 2 coats of primer and good exterior paint hold up the best.

My bees overwinter on frames that look like this. No dry cells going into the winter and lots of young healthy bees.

 

[JSL]

Lauri,

I like the TiteBond glues for marking queens, however the large majority are marked right after insemination while they are still anesthetized. This makes marking easier and the glue has a minute or two to dry before the queens are mobile again. The trick is getting just enough glue on the thorax so that a little comes out around the edge when I press the tag down. On the rare occasions that I mark mobile queens or when we used to mark workers for research projects, it was best to let them crawl in an open space for a little while so that they did not rub up against anything to loosen the tag for a minute or two.

 

[AstroBee]

I too use Titebond, but use III instead of II. I just have III at the house, no other reason. Also, I only apply discs to II queens when they are anesthetized. All production queens are marked with just color, no disc.

 

[adamf]

Hi Lauri,

The Titebond ll we use, is for wood.

Adam
vpqueenbees.com