When you do a cutout, are you framing brood combs only?
Or majority brood and a couple of honey combs?
And if you had to cut the combs with honey in them, is creates a big mess no?
Wait till it drips dry first before framing?
Frame brood comb only.
Cutting honey and feeling it run down your head and shoulders is half the fun of cutouts... :evil: :-D
Keep the clean honey for yourself and feed the dirty honey back to the bees.
Dirty honey contains pollen, brood, insulation, dust balls, etc.
I only do brood combs. Maybe if it's old black comb with honey in it, I might try putting one in for some food, but it's almost always too messy and too soft to put honey in.
Thanks guys!
I've been putting a few honey combs in there as well, crap, no wonder why the ants found it so fast!!! The honey was dripping all over the place.
Will only put brood combs in frames in future cutouts.
I did a cutout a couple of weeks ago from a porch pillar. Started at the top (honey comb) and worked down to the brood nest. Big mistake! Everything was a mess, and the colony absconded because of the wet, drippy mess and the ants it attracted. It was my first cutout job, and I learned a lot from it. :-D
When I do a cutout I just use the brood comb. I have pulled a frame or two of honey from one of the other hive an give that to them. Don't know if that the right thing to do but it's something that works for me plus it gives the bees something to feed the brood when the queen starts to lay.
Pondman
Another question or two...
When framing combs, do you frame the combs with eggs, larvae, uncapped, and capped brood?
Or just capped?
all of the brood that you can. you want the resources not only to keep numbers up, but if you should miss or damage the queen, you want them to be able to make another. you will lose some anyway, so the more you can give them the better.
When placing the comb/brood in the hive it is important to get it orientated correctly.
Steve