[Barry Digman]

A neighbor kid decided to kick one of my "urban" hives over today. I got a frantic call from my daughter that my son had gotten stung so many times that mom took him to the hospital. Turned out he'd suited up to put the hive back together but got about 10 hits and was fine, and was particulaly annoyed that mom panicked and dragged him into the emergency room. No one else got stung, and the hive was back together when I got home. The outer cover is broken but I won't be able to tell how much other damage was done or if the queen got killed until they settle down. They're bearding up on the outside of the hive tonight and I expect it will get down to the 40's.
The question is if the queen died is it too late to requeen?

 

[SippyBees]

Never too late to drop a queen... eh?? : ))
Lemme know, Mr Russel said he has about 10-12 queens left in his nucs.... was gonna requeen some of his own hives with 'em, but maybe I can talk him out of them if you need one. Better get it overnighted no matter where you get it this time of year.... is still warm here, but I don't know about west/north of here.
Sip

 

[Michael Bush]

Assuming they are queenless and you want to introduce a queen...

How warm is it in the daytime? If you put a queen in a cage in I'd put her where they are clustering. But to be safe from her getting left behind when they cluster, I'd be tempted to do a direct relase. Put the cage in as early as they are flying and wait a few hours and go back and release her. The reason I would do this is that I think the risk of losing her because you release her is less than the risk of the cluster leaving her out and she dies from exposure.

Odds are the queen is fine anyway.

 

[Barry Digman]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>How warm is it in the daytime?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's going to be warm this week, from the low 60's all the way to 80 during the day. Lows at night in the mid 40's.

 

[Guest]

If the queen died, she CAN be replaced,
just as one might requeen in the fall.

The good news is that I used to have
lots of hives toppled over by what
turned out to be members of the local
high-school football team trying to prove
their bravery to each other, and I never
lost a queen from hive-toppling.

The local Sheriff's deputies took actual
fingerprints off the toppled hives, and
after getting prints from myself and the
boys who work for me, were then able to
prove who pushed what. The group was
identified by their tire treads - easy
to do given the unique "performance" tires
used and the unique wear patterns.

 

[Barry Digman]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The good news is that I used to have
lots of hives toppled over by what
turned out to be members of the local
high-school football team trying to prove
their bravery to each other, and I never
lost a queen from hive-toppling.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I checked them around 11:00 this morning and they seem much more calmed down. I noticed a lot of debris tucked in the entrance, mostly wax crumbs and pollen it seems. There were also lots of rocks, some the size of baseballs. I'm guessing the kid threw rocks at the hive from the dents in the bodies. Perhaps he didn't get the response he wanted so he kicked the whole thing over. He's the kind of kid who probably did it out of pure meanness, not as a show of bravery. Sadly, he's one of the latchkey kids with no supervision most of the time. I was angry at first, now I'm just sorry for him. His life will suck if things don't change for him.

 

[BerkeyDavid]

Hey Coyote

Bet you are pretty proud of your boy!

 

[Barry Digman]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Bet you are pretty proud of your boy!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

He did pretty well. Now we're wondering what the correct procedure would have been. Just get the hive back together as quickly as possible? Smoke 'em or spray 'em first and wait till they settled down? Do nothing until morning? What do you all think? It was about 30 minutes before dark, suburban neighborhood setting. I suppose all's well that ends well, but it's always interesting to hear how others have or would have handled it.

 

[thebeesknees]

I would have loaded the smoker up full blast, put on the battle armor and dove in. I'd have done as much as I could do before dark, then finish up the next morning. I figure that the longer they are being stressed, the worse it is. Conversely, the quicker they can begin to repair the damage, the better.

I'd be real proud of your son. I have a five year old who loves working the bees with me. I only hope he has as much moxie as your son does.

One final thing... I am also in a decidedly suburban setting, and one of my worse nightmares is having some punk(s) come along and trash the yard. It's ironic that it's easier to keep a 300 lb bear away from hives than it is a 130 lb kid. I look at it this way, there are people who build, and a few who tear things down. Just thank God that your son is a builder.

All the best...

Matt

 

[Michael Bush]

Assuming it JUST happened I'd wait for them to settle. If it happened a few minutes before I'd smoke them a bit and put it back together as soon as you can. It's pretty disheartening for them to be in that kind of dissarray all night.

 

[Guest]

> Now we're wondering what the correct procedure would have been.
> Just get the hive back together as quickly as possible?

Yes. If the hive is reassembled, any/all "confused" bees will go
back to the hive, and repair work will start to fix comb, re-goo
the joints with propolis, etc. Give 'em back an enclosed space
with a single entrance to defend, and they will sort themselves out.

Queens can fall out of hives, so watch where you step when you
are doing all this. Only rarely will a queen be alone, so what
one is looking for is a small group of bees.

Here's another trick to remember. When gathering up the scattered
hive components, look with care at each hive body or super to
see which has FANNING bees. These bees are fanning the queen
pheromones, and advertising ">>THIS<< is the core hive".

Clearly one wants to move that component with great care.

Once the hive is assembled, again watch for the fanners
for reasons that should be obvious. Strongly consider inserting
an entrance reducer until the hive has time to stabilize.

 

[SilverFox]

Hey Coyote; Just a thought, why not offer the kid a chance, kinda like a big brother, who knows maybe you could turn him around??????? Ask him if he'd like to learn about bees, perhaps it might help keep him from getting 'forgotten' and it might give something that will make him feel useful.
JUST A THOUGHT.

------------------
'WHEN WE CLOSE OUR EYES WE ALL LOOK THE SAME' GWPW 03

 

[BeeMiner]

>>Here's another trick to remember. When gathering up the scattered
hive components, look with care at each hive body or super to
see which has FANNING bees. These bees are fanning the queen
pheromones, and advertising ">>THIS<< is the core hive".

Hmmm... I could have used this advice a couple weeks ago.

Mark J.

 

[Barry Digman]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Hey Coyote; Just a thought, why not offer the kid a chance, kinda like a big brother, who knows maybe you could turn him around??????? Ask him if he'd like to learn about bees, perhaps it might help keep him from getting 'forgotten' and it might give something that will make him feel useful.
JUST A THOUGHT.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is the correct answer, of course. Our first reaction is justice or punishment or an in-your-face meeting with mom. But you're absolutely right, the thing to do is to seize the opportunity to show him what he was fooling with and how much cooler it is to nurture something rather than destroy it.

 

[Guest]

With the football players I mentioned before,
I told the Sheriff that I would not press
charges, as their coach had heard of the
incident, and benched the bunch of them
for a solid month. They were not even
allowed to attend games, although they
were required to attend practices.

I considered the punishment "fitting".

 

[Dee]

when i came home late at night (from work) to find a bear had destroyed mine i covered them with a tarp just to keep out the elements until the morning, im not sure if it helped or not but it didnt hurt anything as well. the only thing i didnt like about waiting is that i had robbers all over from my other hives so i really couldnt destinguish how many bees were left from the wreck.

 

[magnet-man]

Here is a trick that I sometimes use for direct release. Open the hive and spray a very small about of Bee Quick in the hive. The order will mask the introduction of a foreign queen.

Do this when it warms up a bit. Don’t use too much Bee Quick. You don’t want to force them out of the hive too long. Some of the bees will go outside and some will stay in the hive.

I have used this method five times and have a 100% success rate. However the sample is very small. Your mileage may vary.


[This message has been edited by magnet-man (edited October 11, 2004).]