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!

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!