Sorry babs... seems I'm following in your footsteps. Hope there's still a small nuc there for you to build on.
Hive inspection and box reversal
- Thread starter Happy Chooks
- Start date
babsbag
Herd Master
It is just so frustrating to do it all right and still have problems, sorry you are having a tough time too. I suppose I really should just give up, maybe Mason bees for pollination and just buy honey; I don't use that much of it anyways. I am just stubborn and don't want to be beat.
- Thread starter
- #183
Happy Chooks
Loving the herd life
I've read that once they start brooding up, if they use up all of their stored pollen, they can collapse in the spring. Not enough resources to feed the brood. It's why some people say once you start feeding pollen patties to not stop feeding them until they have plenty of pollen on their own.
babsbag
Herd Master
Good to know...one more thing to worry about. It is like raising goats and having one get sick, just throw the medicine cabinet at them and pray.
So let's see.
Pollen patties
Winter patties
Brood patties
Sugar syrup
Varroa mite treatment
Tracheal mite treatment
Mouse guards
Predator fencing
Wax moths
Did I miss anything? And I read just yesterday that raising bees was like having pets without all the work. WHO ARE THEY KIDDING ???
So let's see.
Pollen patties
Winter patties
Brood patties
Sugar syrup
Varroa mite treatment
Tracheal mite treatment
Mouse guards
Predator fencing
Wax moths
Did I miss anything? And I read just yesterday that raising bees was like having pets without all the work. WHO ARE THEY KIDDING ???
babsbag
Herd Master
Just got a pleasant surprise. I ordered two nucs that I was supposed to pick up the end of March. It was a 3 hour drive to get them and I wanted them NOW but that was the best I could do. The guy just volunteered to deliver them to me next weekend. I had told him I would take 2 year old queens if I could get them earlier so that is what I am getting. I will just requeen them this summer. Time to clean up the hive bodies and get ready.
- Thread starter
- #186
Happy Chooks
Loving the herd life
Yay! I'm so glad you didn't give up on them!
I'm eager for this rain to stop, so I can see my bees flying again! They should be fine, but nothing beats the visual of them foraging.
And add robbing screens to your list?
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
We went and picked up 1 of the 2 hives that are local. The hives were left out with just the hive body, inner lid, outer lid, base and frames. Something had knocked over one of the hives and it was upside down on the ground with mice living in it. They have eatten all the wax and chewed holes thru the foundations. We left that hive there because it was full of ice and we wanted the mice to move out so we set it up right with the lid askew, hopefully they will get the message its time to move. We couldnt drive back to where the hives were because of all the wet weather the driveway was to muddy so we had to walk in and hubby carried the hive out. The supers are there as well but in a completely different spot on the property so we have to wait before we get those because it is a much much farther walk so we are hoping the drive way clears up soon and we can drive in and get the hopefully mouse free hive and the supers. The hive we did bring home i didnt even get a chance to inspect i will have to do it tonight. I'm not thinking there will be much since mice were in the second one and had ate everything. They do have the plastic foundations for all the frames though.
As far as joining an association, i found out there is no one any kind of reasonable distance from me. The closest active one who would even answer emails confirmed they are pretty much it for the state and they are over 4 hrs south of me. So im not sure they would have the same bee resources and i know they have a much milder climate. They are also in a densely populated area where as i live by very very small towns and farms.
So i think i shall have to look for a mentor but again finding anyone close doesnt look to likely. Atleast we will have the woodenware taken care of though. I'm going to inspect the hive tonight and see what i have...or dont have.
As far as joining an association, i found out there is no one any kind of reasonable distance from me. The closest active one who would even answer emails confirmed they are pretty much it for the state and they are over 4 hrs south of me. So im not sure they would have the same bee resources and i know they have a much milder climate. They are also in a densely populated area where as i live by very very small towns and farms.
So i think i shall have to look for a mentor but again finding anyone close doesnt look to likely. Atleast we will have the woodenware taken care of though. I'm going to inspect the hive tonight and see what i have...or dont have.
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
I did find someone on a list of mentors that is only 45minutes from me but no response as of yet.
I looked over the hive last night, took some pics and got some background info from the DH. Apparently he built a medium Nuc box and trapped a swarm in the box, 3-4 days later his ex-father-in-law who thinks he is a bee master decided they had long enough and moved 3 frames into 1 deep and 2 frames into another deep. So he put medium frames into the deep boxes and didnt bother to move their pollen patty over to either hive body. Basically they didnt seem inclined to stick around, im not sure if it was food related or just moved to soon or what, i know they had no queen when he trapped them of course.
So anyhow here are some pictures of the hive and it condition. In the second picture you can see the middle 3 frames with darker wood are the mediums. No other frames have any comb or work at all on them.
These are pics of the front and back of 2 mediums. Besides the wax there is nothing to salvage off of them i'm not even sure about that.
The pics loaded out of order for the frames. 1, 5, 6 are one frame and 2, 3, 4 are the other. Looked like one frame of uncapped honey, and one frame of brood?
I noticed the uncapped honey is moldy...a lot. If i tap the frames on the box some of it did get knocked out but would it be bad to start new bees with these frames? Should i try to cut off the bad parts or leave them and the bees will clean it out? Also having mediums in a deep seems like it would create a problem later on, no?
I looked over the hive last night, took some pics and got some background info from the DH. Apparently he built a medium Nuc box and trapped a swarm in the box, 3-4 days later his ex-father-in-law who thinks he is a bee master decided they had long enough and moved 3 frames into 1 deep and 2 frames into another deep. So he put medium frames into the deep boxes and didnt bother to move their pollen patty over to either hive body. Basically they didnt seem inclined to stick around, im not sure if it was food related or just moved to soon or what, i know they had no queen when he trapped them of course.
So anyhow here are some pictures of the hive and it condition. In the second picture you can see the middle 3 frames with darker wood are the mediums. No other frames have any comb or work at all on them.
These are pics of the front and back of 2 mediums. Besides the wax there is nothing to salvage off of them i'm not even sure about that.
The pics loaded out of order for the frames. 1, 5, 6 are one frame and 2, 3, 4 are the other. Looked like one frame of uncapped honey, and one frame of brood?
I noticed the uncapped honey is moldy...a lot. If i tap the frames on the box some of it did get knocked out but would it be bad to start new bees with these frames? Should i try to cut off the bad parts or leave them and the bees will clean it out? Also having mediums in a deep seems like it would create a problem later on, no?
IMHO, those frames don't look all that bad... you don't have foul brood and I don't see any real evidence of wax moths. The stuff you see in the cells isn't uncapped honey, it's actually (moldy) stored pollen (bee bread). I would take a paint scraper/putty knife/hive tool and scrape the really nasty looking comb off the one frame Right hand side:
Just the last 4" or so is all. The new bees will clean up and fix the old comb before they start using it. There's only one little issue... I would NOT put medium frames in a deep box. That is inviting the bees to make all kinds of burr comb on the bottoms of the frames to make them as long as the deep frames. What you'll likely end up with is a mess. What I would do is set them aside and place them in the honey super (medium box) that I'd put on top later after they're established. So essentially, you'll be starting with an empty deep... no problem.
When bees swarm, there is a queen with them. The old queen leaves with the swarm about 2 days before the first new queen (if there is one already being prepared) hatches. If there isn't a new queen, after the swarm leaves, the workers will make one or more from the last eggs laid or larva that are less than 3 days old. So if the swarm moved in to the swarm trap, there would have been a queen with it. when DF-IL broke the trap apart and put 3 frames in one and 2 in another, the queen would have been on one of those frames.
If he found a swarm like on a branch and knocked it into the nuc box, there is a chance that he might have missed/lost the queen as she is typically right in the deepest center portion of the swarm.
Just the last 4" or so is all. The new bees will clean up and fix the old comb before they start using it. There's only one little issue... I would NOT put medium frames in a deep box. That is inviting the bees to make all kinds of burr comb on the bottoms of the frames to make them as long as the deep frames. What you'll likely end up with is a mess. What I would do is set them aside and place them in the honey super (medium box) that I'd put on top later after they're established. So essentially, you'll be starting with an empty deep... no problem.
When bees swarm, there is a queen with them. The old queen leaves with the swarm about 2 days before the first new queen (if there is one already being prepared) hatches. If there isn't a new queen, after the swarm leaves, the workers will make one or more from the last eggs laid or larva that are less than 3 days old. So if the swarm moved in to the swarm trap, there would have been a queen with it. when DF-IL broke the trap apart and put 3 frames in one and 2 in another, the queen would have been on one of those frames.
If he found a swarm like on a branch and knocked it into the nuc box, there is a chance that he might have missed/lost the queen as she is typically right in the deepest center portion of the swarm.
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
ok that makes sense. i didnt think the mediums in the deeps were a good idea lol. DH had a medium nuc box hence the medium frames i am assuming, as you can imagine he is not overly open about discussing things relating to his ex-family members from his ex-wife lmao. Moving on....i had not thought about the fact there must have been a queen with the swarm. DH did say the hive with the mice had looked like the better hive after the split so i would assume it got the queen and this levt over hive i have was trying to make a queen perhaps. Either way they left/died shortly after they were split because as i mentioned all other deep frames are completely empty and the medium frames are not even fully drawn.
i will definately try to scrap off the worst looking part of the comb as you mentioned. There were either nurse or worker bees dead with their head in some of the combs still.
So i shall be starting empty but atleast i have foundations...lol
Could i take the medium foundation out of the frames and stick them in a deep frame? Then they could just fill in the top and clean then continue building? I'm a little worried so far anyplace i can get package bees from the earliest ship day is mid-late may, so they will have a short season to get ready for winter.
i will definately try to scrap off the worst looking part of the comb as you mentioned. There were either nurse or worker bees dead with their head in some of the combs still.
So i shall be starting empty but atleast i have foundations...lol
Could i take the medium foundation out of the frames and stick them in a deep frame? Then they could just fill in the top and clean then continue building? I'm a little worried so far anyplace i can get package bees from the earliest ship day is mid-late may, so they will have a short season to get ready for winter.
