My name is Ross and I am from Pueblo, Colorado.
In the late 70's I kept bees in Arkansas for three years, Chased swarms in Little Rock, and did trap outs, read everything I could find.
I enjoyed the keeping of bees, but sold everything in 1980 and moved back to Colorado.
I have been doing handyman and remodel work for many years and recently one of my customers said they have bees in a deck support column for two years and couldn't find any one that would remove them.
That started the ball rolling and I bought some equipment and started trying to find some bees to populate a hive for the trap out. (this all started in mid September this year) No one is selling bees right now and anyway its the wrong time of year to do a trap out.
I have equipment and no bees so I started watching Craigslist think some one might be wanting to get rid of their bees. Not much action there until an add popped up saying "I have bees in my tree and want some one to come get them". They had been the tree for an unknown time and built quite a bit of comb and during a wind storm three prices of comb fell that actually had brood cells in it. That is when the home owner noticed the swarm for the first time. They waited several days before posting the ad and by the time I came all the brood had hatched and the young nurse bees were still piled on the pieces of comb on the ground. The swarm in the tree was about half a 5 gallon bucket full, with the tree branch and comb the bucket was full.
Since a cold front and storm was moving I removed half the frames from a brood box and stuck the whole branch, bees and comb in on Wednesday and then had to wait until Saturday for warmer weather at which time I rubber banded the pieces of comb into a couple of empty frames to make them feel at home in their new home. I have been feeding them as they have "0" stores and hope to help them survive the winter.
I tried to make a pollen substitute based on Randy Oliver's recipe but the bees don't seem to like it. Before I order a commercial patty substitute I thought I would ask here if anyone has a simple recipe for a good substitute.
I have not manipulated the bees yet to look for the queen, but I believe she is in the box as the bees are acting fairly normal. Maybe in a week or two if we get a nice warm day I'll check.
Where I am in Colorado we tend to have the occasional warmer day every now and then until about January.
Any body here from Colorado?
Welcome to BeeMaster. Sounds like you are already set with that new hive. Let us know how it does this winter.
Jim
If you can get spent brewer's yeast from a local brewery, it makes a great pollen sub alone, or mixed with 10% sugar and/or 10% soy flour.
Quote from: iddee on October 17, 2014, 04:26:21 PM
If you can get spent brewer's yeast from a local brewery, it makes a great pollen sub alone, or mixed with 10% sugar and/or 10% soy flour.
I am not sure what spent means, and would a beer brewery have that?
Thanks for the response
Ross
they all use yeast. dried is best
welcome
Some of my most favorite government publications used to come from Pueblo. Welcome to the forum.
Welcome to the forum, Keep in mind that even if your bees do not make it the drawn brood comb makes for some fantastic lure to get a swarm come spring time (I would add lemon grass oil (LGO) as sounds like you are determined to start from zero outlay.
Funny about your name, it is the name of a strip club that has been opened in Portland by a famous Porn star that has purchased about half of the bill boards in the city!
Quote from: thewhiterhino on October 17, 2014, 05:28:07 PM
Quote from: iddee on October 17, 2014, 04:26:21 PM
If you can get spent brewer's yeast from a local brewery, it makes a great pollen sub alone, or mixed with 10% sugar and/or 10% soy flour.
I am not sure what spent means, and would a beer brewery have that?
Thanks for the response
Ross
Spent simply means yeast that has been used to brew beer/lager/brews for distilled alcohol production etc. Only a small amount of yeast is needed for future batches of beer, the remainder is a useful waste product. Not greatly dissimilar to spare wax that you would not want to re-use as foundation.
Quote from: DavyBee on October 23, 2014, 04:38:29 PM
Quote from: thewhiterhino on October 17, 2014, 05:28:07 PM
Quote from: iddee on October 17, 2014, 04:26:21 PM
If you can get spent brewer's yeast from a local brewery, it makes a great pollen sub alone, or mixed with 10% sugar and/or 10% soy flour.
I am not sure what spent means, and would a beer brewery have that?
Thanks for the response
Ross
Spent simply means yeast that has been used to brew beer/lager/brews for distilled alcohol production etc. Only a small amount of yeast is needed for future batches of beer, the remainder is a useful waste product. Not greatly dissimilar to spare wax that you would not want to re-use as foundation.
Thanks for the explanation, I think we have a micro brewery in town.
Today I opened the hive and checked every thing. They are storing the sugar syrup and actually finding some pollen somewhere. I added some more sugar syrup and looked over the combs that I rubber banded into the frames. They have attached everything nicely and I found an area ther are raising some brood.
They are not doing too much brood so for November it seemed like an appropriate amount in my opinion. (remember I have no recent experience other than studying the information that's available).
I found the queen and wonder about such a small colony surviving the winter.
Quote from: AllenF on October 19, 2014, 10:49:35 PM
Some of my most favorite government publications used to come from Pueblo. Welcome to the forum.
I think most still do, but they closed the walk-in location and mostly ship stuff. :-D