[timsch]

I get cutouts from a bee remover. I'll prepare the hive for them to go into and put them into it after dusk. This way they don't fly off. The only issue with this is that sometimes I get the bees in the morning. It gets pretty hot here in the summer, so I do my best to keep them in the shade. I'll give them water at least; sometimes honey. This morning I got a healthy bucket with another bucket of cutout brood to set them up with in the new box. Several times today I went out to give them some honey (I dripped it through the screens in the bucket, getting on the bees, of course). They also got probably 1/2 - 3/4 cup of water. This evening I go to dump them into the box, and I was surprised to see so many dead; probably half. They mound of dead had a sheen to them, as if they got too much honey. Overall, I didn't put in more than 1/2 a cup.

I'm tired of killing these bees unnecessarily. I know cutouts are traumatic to them, however I know the remover and he's very consciencious. When he gets them to me they are in as good a shape as they can be, all things considered.

I want to give the bees the best chance. Would water throughout the day most likely be sufficient? Honey not needed?

 

[JWPalmer]

The bees need ventilation more than they water or honey dumped on them. They are not going to starve over a day or two if you do not feed them, but you really should get them out of the bucket and into a hive as soon as you can. Waiting until evening if you are home already is not the best plan.

 

[kilocharlie]

I immediately wire the combs right side up into empty frames and place them into the hive's brood boxes. I try very hard to make a compact brood nest with a pollen frame on one end and place honey combs above in a super.

Quite often it is a rather Art Deco - looking bunch of comb chunks, and not all that straight, but they are arranged by function. Brood in the brood chamber, honey above, pollen at one or both ends.

If I skimp on anything, it's drone comb - I melt it for the wax. Excess honey, of which there is often plenty, goes into buckets. These I feed back to the colony over the next several days. Do not wait so long that the honey turns into mead.

Over the next few months, I attempt to swap fused comb chunk frames out and frames of foundation in, but not this late in the year (unless you know you have a colony that is drawing out wax in late August).

**************

Bees tend to dive on honey when cut out, although they have never encountered such large amounts of liquid honey in a puddle or in the bottom of a bucket. So they drown in it.

To prevent this, I use a large, somewhat shallow plastic tray and cover it with #8 hardware cloth, although a screen will do just fine. The liquid honey drains down into the tub, the bees get sticky eating the honey off the cut combs, then others come and lick them clean. Don't let them in to the liquid honey part of the tub - keep the screen or hardware cloth down bee-tight.

Certain years, the cut-out bees seem to fly away. To prevent absconding, newspaper-combine them on top of an established colony. Do not change location for at least 2 or 3 weeks.

 

[timsch]

Thanks for the replies. I'll quit giving them anything more than water. Ventilation is good, in that the buckets have multiple cutouts in them with wire screen stapled over them. I'd guess at least 30% screened area.

I've been banding the best chunks of brood comb into frames as well as possible.

 

[Gray Goose]

I get cutouts from a bee remover. I'll prepare the hive for them to go into and put them into it after dusk. This way they don't fly off. The only issue with this is that sometimes I get the bees in the morning. It gets pretty hot here in the summer, so I do my best to keep them in the shade. I'll give them water at least; sometimes honey. This morning I got a healthy bucket with another bucket of cutout brood to set them up with in the new box. Several times today I went out to give them some honey (I dripped it through the screens in the bucket, getting on the bees, of course). They also got probably 1/2 - 3/4 cup of water. This evening I go to dump them into the box, and I was surprised to see so many dead; probably half. They mound of dead had a sheen to them, as if they got too much honey. Overall, I didn't put in more than 1/2 a cup.

I'm tired of killing these bees unnecessarily. I know cutouts are traumatic to them, however I know the remover and he's very consciencious. When he gets them to me they are in as good a shape as they can be, all things considered.

I want to give the bees the best chance. Would water throughout the day most likely be sufficient? Honey not needed?

the Sheen is Vomit, in a last ditch effort to cool themselves they toss the cookies , here the nectar.
Cutouts are not that traumatic, the heat is. Hive them imiediatly. A day in the pail is apparently too long.

GG