[Fl_Beak]

Off to do a cut out,weather permitting, and am wondering if there is a preffered time of day to begin operations?

Also, for Florida, am I ok to try and start a hive from the bees/brood this late in June?

or better to take the bees, to use as a "bee bomb" for a swarm I hived in April for a boost to that colony?

Your thoughts would be appreciated. +Yes, I am aware that the colony is to be requeened as soon as possible to help reduce the spread/influence of AHB.

 

[suncoast]

I like to do cutouts as early as possible just for my comfort. I have several cutouts to do next week and 90+ by noon.
I don't think it's too late to start a new hive in this area, I am just south of you. You may want to feed them for a week or two to give them a boost.

 

[Fl_Beak]

Hot has been an understatement...

 

[JP]

If you have the time, begin early, set the new hive up on site, leave. Come back late evening to do an inventory check and seal hive and bring to bee yard.

If you only have a certain window, begin in the evening and finish right before dark.


...JP

 

[Fl_Beak]

JP, your plan B was my intent. Figured I can sweep/vacuum everyone coming home...

It's a in eve, so if I set up a hive, how close would it have to be located?

 

[B Reeves]

Do it at your pleasure, keep an eye for storms alot of lightining lately, put your hive on top of a ladder to keep it close, the bees will fan the queen scent out of the hive to let everybody close by know where they are, there is no time in florida when you cannot do cutouts as long as you feed, keep the queen her genetics IMO are the best part of cutouts or swarms, you can allways get rid of her later
Bob

 

[Fl_Beak]

Got all the comb out- but couldn't get all the bees, so left a nuc on site w/brood comb.


Thanks for the tips

 

[JP]

FL Beak, did you get the queen? If you did not, expect most to go where she is. My previous advice was contingent on you getting her, then caging her and leaving her in the new set up.


...JP

 

[Fl_Beak]

JP-
We did not get a positive id on the queen, although I had a cage with me if we did...I am still a bit 'green' and dealing with that many bees is still a little imposing. They were, in my opinion, pretty good natured about the whole situation

I strung up the brood comb in the NUC, hoping that would attract the whole crew- ended up with 5 half frames of brood with some pollen nectar. We bee vac'd a nice bunch of bees and dumbed that into the nuc, hoping we did not roll the queen in the process. Left the NUC within a foot of the prior hive location, with intent to go back tomorrow (48hrs) and get it, depending on observations. As of last evening, bees appeared to be moving into the NUC. I'll call the owner today and see what it appears to be doing. There were a substantial number of bees coming home as we were wrapping up, and I figured leaving the NUC would be the best way to keep a high population. Still have a lot to learn, but I think it went well.

No stings and no heat stroke.

 

[beekeeper1756]

Personally, I have done cutouts in the afternoon, evening and even tried one in the early, dawn hours. I really enjoyed the early, dawn cutout. Bees were not as active and I was completely done by 9:30 a.m. with cold coke breaks in between. I vote for early a.m.

 

[mothergoosemagic]

@beekeeper1756--I hear you about early morning and a cold Coke.

Another experienced beek & I just finished up a huge cutout at a farmhouse. Three days sucking up bees with two vacs going. Colony had been there at least 5 years, so it covered 3 stud bays. Two were mostly honey & pollent, and the "old" brood nest was almost 4 feet long. Very little young brood but we couldn't locate the primary nest, and believe me, we looked. And this colony had swarmed about a month ago.

Yesterday I soloed a cutout because my partner had his hands full with a big swarm hanging on one of his bee traps. Fortunately, it was a lot smaller and I was able to start early morning and finish early yesterday evening.

One thing I did notice--both cutouts were on the east side of the houses. Very considerate of the girls. Nice to be working in the shade in the afternoon.

 

[Fl_Beak]

learning 101 curve

I picked up the aforementioned NUC tonight, just before astorm, so I bagged it and pretty much ran to the truck. Got home ahead of the squall, and peaked in- maybe 100 bees in the nuc. Bummer. I had tied in 5 frames of brood, about 1/2 the depth of each frame, dumped in the bee vac contents. The brood appears to have larvae eating it in places- assuming either SHB or moths. I was going to shake some bees from a strong hive, in hopes of adding bees to get the hive going, but got run off by lightning. It does not appear that a queen exists in the NUC. I figure the storm will clear in an hour or so.

Should I scrap the NUC, or try and shake in some bees after the storm in the dark, wait till morning.....?

 

[JP]

With only a hundred bees your combs may be toast, but if you have eggs/young larvae still, you may just be able to save the genetics by adding a bunch of bees from another hive so they can make a new queen.

It may be worth a try, but time is of the essence and the beetles wait for no one.

Best of luck!


...JP

 

[Fl_Beak]

Storm lingered a bit last night, and this morning the comb was pretty infested. Didn't look optimistic, so I'm giving the comb a suntan, letting my girls clean it out, may freeze the comb, then melt it to paint up some plastic foundation...sigh

 

[stoweski]

I had a similar situation after doing a cutout last week. We pulled two mediums of brood, honey, and pollen out of a wall. Not knowing if we got the queen but watching another thousand or so bees around the opening of the wall we setup a nuc with brood and some bees in it.
Just got back this evening from retrieving the nuc with very few bees and a ton of ants in it. Next to the nuc on the wall was a large cluster of bees. My guess is that the queen is inside of it.

So my question... what do we do now? We were thinking of spraying the outside of the cluster and brushing them into a box in hopes of them falling in the box and being too sticky to go anywhere... and hoping the queen falls with them. Other than that I'm not sure of another option. any ideas?

Thanks.