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BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: BeeMaster2 on June 22, 2014, 04:59:16 AM

Title: A marked Queen with about 200 bees fills a 5 frame nuc in a month
Post by: BeeMaster2 on June 22, 2014, 04:59:16 AM
About a month ago I noticed one bee guarding the entrance of a swarm trap for several days. I opened it up and found one of my marked queens in with no more than 200 bees on a small piece of comb. I thought this queen had absconded or swarmed from a weak hive so I considered her to be useless and left her to see what would happen.
This week I kept noticing the entrance had a half dozen bees maintaining constant guard at the entrance. I opened it up on Friday and all 5 foundation less frames were fully drawn out. 4 had a perfect 1" of honey across the top and the rest was solid brood. Most of it looked like it was capped the same day.
I strongly suspected that my Observation hive that absconded a couple of weeks ago moved into this hive. It did not have a marked queen. Apparently the OH queen did not survive.
I moved this nuc into my OH. We really have missed not having a hive inside to watch.
This hive is really gentle. While putting in the OH, I leaned a frame sideways and the comb full of brood and bees dropped to the table. Nothing happened, no reaction. No stings. I found the marked queen on the top side of this frame and put her in the hive. Rubber banded the comb and closed it up.
There were lots of bees still in the box so instead of trying to shake the bees into the hive and close it up, which has not worked in the past, I put a q tip, with just a hint of lemon oil, in the entrance and stood the box on end over the entrance with the box touching the entrance. This worked every well. Within 2 hours all of the bees walked in to the hive.
We are hoping they stay this time.
Jim
Title: Re: A marked Queen with about 200 bees fills a 5 frame nuc in a month
Post by: sc-bee on June 22, 2014, 06:16:49 AM
Probably me but I am missing something (or still asleep) :-D Are you saying a marked queen moved in with 200 bees and later you observation hive absconded to the same swarm trap? Where did the mark queen come from?
Title: Re: A marked Queen with about 200 bees fills a 5 frame nuc in a month
Post by: GSF on June 22, 2014, 08:14:00 AM
...and when did you say you were going to bring me one of her daughters? :-D
Title: Re: A marked Queen with about 200 bees fills a 5 frame nuc in a month
Post by: biggraham610 on June 22, 2014, 10:30:50 AM
Happy for you Jim. Enjoy having your Observation Hive back. Good luck with the new kids. G :chop:
Title: Re: A marked Queen with about 200 bees fills a 5 frame nuc in a month
Post by: Spear on June 22, 2014, 03:40:15 PM
I had to move my bees into new hive as the hives that I got them in were really old and not at all weather proof. So I transferred all the frames from the old hives into the new ones and then just leaned the old hives up against the new ones so the bees left in the old hives could walk into the new hive by themselves.

Before:
(http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t596/Tracy_Spear/Photo0049_zps47e49c30.jpg) (http://s1315.photobucket.com/user/Tracy_Spear/media/Photo0049_zps47e49c30.jpg.html)

After:
(http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t596/Tracy_Spear/Photo0053_zps98e43027.jpg) (http://s1315.photobucket.com/user/Tracy_Spear/media/Photo0053_zps98e43027.jpg.html)

As you can see there were a lot of flyers around that day!
Title: Re: A marked Queen with about 200 bees fills a 5 frame nuc in a month
Post by: BeeMaster2 on June 22, 2014, 05:14:43 PM
Quote from: sc-bee on June 22, 2014, 06:16:49 AM
Probably me but I am missing something (or still asleep) :-D Are you saying a marked queen moved in with 200 bees and later you observation hive absconded to the same swarm trap? Where did the mark queen come from?
You are correct. When I opened it the first time, there was a brand new piece of comb that was smaller in diameter than a baseball and one next to it the size of a silver dollar. They were not on the shallow frame of drawn comb that i used as part of the bait. The marked queen moved out of one of the other hives that I had split and had marked her either before or just after her maiden flight. I used white to mark all of my queens because that is the only marker pen that I have.
Jim
Title: Re: A marked Queen with about 200 bees fills a 5 frame nuc in a month
Post by: BeeMaster2 on June 22, 2014, 05:18:55 PM
Quote from: GSF on June 22, 2014, 08:14:00 AM
...and when did you say you were going to bring me one of her daughters? :-D
As soon as you bring me a nuc over flowing with nurse bees to put the queen cells in.
:-D
If you are serious let me know. I have all of my hives back in town and I could use her for making queens.
Jim
Title: Re: A marked Queen with about 200 bees fills a 5 frame nuc in a month
Post by: BeeMaster2 on June 22, 2014, 05:58:40 PM
Spear,
That works real well when the bees come out the front door and call everyone home with their Nazinof glands exposed. The problem with this hive doing the same is that I started moving them at 6:30 at night. The hive is 30" inside of a one inch tube and it usually takes from one to two days for the bees to figure out how to get out of the hive. From now on I will use the q tip with just a hint of lemon grass oil. I store the small LGO bottle and several q tips in a trivia container. The q tips get just a little hint of oil on them. It worked real well just putting one in the entrance.
Jim
Title: Re: A marked Queen with about 200 bees fills a 5 frame nuc in a month
Post by: Better.to.Bee.than.not on June 22, 2014, 06:07:24 PM
I don't even think you needed the LGO frankly. When I split, I typically lean the box in front of a hive, or dump the bees in front of it and a ramp and they always just walk right into it and find their way. They usually are not aggressive at this point at all.  but awesome deal anyways.
Title: Re: A marked Queen with about 200 bees fills a 5 frame nuc in a month
Post by: BeeMaster2 on June 23, 2014, 08:09:04 AM
Quote from: Better.to.Bee.than.not on June 22, 2014, 06:07:24 PM
I don't even think you needed the LGO frankly. When I split, I typically lean the box in front of a hive, or dump the bees in front of it and a ramp and they always just walk right into it and find their way. They usually are not aggressive at this point at all.  but awesome deal anyways.

B2B,
Thanks.
The reason for the LGO is that the entrance to the observation hive is small and 30" away from a hive that is designed to have air going into the hive due to heat rising. This does not allow the smell of the hive to come out of the entrance. The bees inside have no idea of how to get out of the hive to the entrance to let the bees in the box to find there way.
At first I just placed the box, without the lid, propped up over the entrance and left it there for a half hour. The tube is clear so I was watching to see if any bees were coming or going in the tube. There were no bees in it.
It took only about 5 minutes, after I place the q tip in the tube for the bees out side to start checking out the tube. An hour later there were only 3 bees left in the box so I shook them out and took the swarm box away.
I posted this for any one else that has an OH because it worked out so well.
Jim
Title: Re: A marked Queen with about 200 bees fills a 5 frame nuc in a month
Post by: Better.to.Bee.than.not on June 24, 2014, 04:16:26 AM
Ah ok, now I got it....interesting. I have thought about making a OH because of you a few times. haven't done it yet, but if I do, this will be good to think about, and know. Always glad to know more stuff.