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523 Posts
Looking for feedback/advice from any who have had successes with Snelgrove (and thanks to those who answered my last post.) I'm not an organized thinker by nature , and doing the Snelgrove manipulation this morning made my head spin. Literally felt dizzy. Trying to process after the fact for learning. I really need a local mentor for this sort of thing...
This hive: four medium boxes packed with bees. One of the boxes was put in above a QE recently just to see if they were ready for it. There was already a lot of honey/nectar stored. Swarming not imminent, but maybe a week away. Found only two charged/ open queen cells on the outside face of an end frame (!). Since low chances of finding the queen in 30 frames covered with bees, (1 box was above QE) without a true ordeal, I did the procedure that's labeled swarm stopping split: left minimal supplies in bottom box for field bees to make queen cells (and to keep them from straying upstairs. The challenge was where to put the honey: just above the lowest box? Checkerboarding with empty supers? I gave two empty supers above a QE, then above the Snelgrove went everything else, which was three medium boxes packed with brood, pollen, honey. Probably enough for them to swarm. I guess this is where the door change comes in - to allow emerging/orienting bees over the next several days to move down. Then hopefully not enough for a swarm.
Maybe a colony this populous really should be split, to make it more manageable. But my inclination was to try leaving them intact and see if they might be super productive this season. I welcome any comments, opinions...
This hive: four medium boxes packed with bees. One of the boxes was put in above a QE recently just to see if they were ready for it. There was already a lot of honey/nectar stored. Swarming not imminent, but maybe a week away. Found only two charged/ open queen cells on the outside face of an end frame (!). Since low chances of finding the queen in 30 frames covered with bees, (1 box was above QE) without a true ordeal, I did the procedure that's labeled swarm stopping split: left minimal supplies in bottom box for field bees to make queen cells (and to keep them from straying upstairs. The challenge was where to put the honey: just above the lowest box? Checkerboarding with empty supers? I gave two empty supers above a QE, then above the Snelgrove went everything else, which was three medium boxes packed with brood, pollen, honey. Probably enough for them to swarm. I guess this is where the door change comes in - to allow emerging/orienting bees over the next several days to move down. Then hopefully not enough for a swarm.
Maybe a colony this populous really should be split, to make it more manageable. But my inclination was to try leaving them intact and see if they might be super productive this season. I welcome any comments, opinions...