[mgburton]

So I did my second cutout yesterday. Decent sized hive. I'd estimate about six pounds of bees and enough comb to fill a nine frame deep. The was no brood anywhere. Just honey (mostly uncapped), pollen, and about 6-8 queen cells, some capped, some uncapped. Used my bee vac a lot as I didn't know if they had a queen to follow into the box.

When I got home, I checkerboarded the deep and put the combs that I removed in the medium above, which I also checkerboarded with empty frames. Not sure if a queen will hatch.... They're were hardly any bees in the deep on the ride home. Most had congregated in an empty medium I had put on the top to load all of the bees in.

So my plan is to leave them alone for a while and see if they have a queen, or if one hatches. I sure would like to get the genetics and not just a new hive. If not, I have a small swarm that I caught with a bred queen that is taking their time building up. I'll do a combine if no queen.

Concerns -

Do you guys think that the queen cells have a chance? I was delicate with them. It was about 90 degrees yesterday, but there were no bees tending the queen cells for the drive home, which was a couple of hours. I had the A/C on max to keep them cool.

I inadvertently sucked up a couple of pieces of loose insulation. I removed the big pieces before I dumped the bees in, but I'm sure that there are some fibers in the hive. Will the bees clean those out?

All in all it was a good experience. I learned about the cutout for the guys personal contractor. He helped do some of the demo work and is going to put everything back together. Really surprised at the bee vac. No dead bees at all except for a few that got crushed with the trap door on the cage inside when I pulled the hose out. Not sure I could have done it without as I don't think there was a queen. On my first cutout, I couldn't located the hive. It turns out that there wasn't really one there (long story), but I learned that some folks use an infrared thermometer. I used one on this cutout, and it absolutely worked. 4 degree bump in temp where the hive was.

Got paid $100 after I said I would do it for free. Lots of work, but it was really fun!

 

[mgburton]

I was checking on some of my other hives this afternoon, and I decided that I would go ahead and load in a frame of eggs to the cutout in the event that they are queen less and need to make a new one.

I was happy to see some bees at the reduced entrance making some orientation flights. When I loaded in the frame, I noticed that while many bees have started to cover the comb again, most were still on the sides of the boxes.

Any ideas? Are they still stunned or in shock?

Going to leave them alone for a while after today. I didn't realize that cutouts could abscond. I thought that since they had comb, it would anchor them to the hive. Anything I can do to help prevent that? If they go, I'm not doing another one of these. Swarms yes, but not 5 hours of work in 90 degree weather for a hive that could bolt....

Thanks in advance!

 

[Mr.Beeman]

Best to leave them alone for at least three days. They will get back to normal after that.
I'm glad to hear the infared laser thermo worked for you. Great tool to have. Here is another tool to add to your arsenal. Perfect for cutting band boards like you just did. I have an upgraded version (brand name) of this type of saw for my building company.

 

[mgburton]

What's the name of that saw? Definitely could have used that on the cutout.