To make a long story short i cut some bees out of a oak tree that had to be removed. I saved as much of their comb as i could that had capped brood but it wasnt alot and i put them in a 5 frame box with a couple of frames of drawn comb and i did manage to get the queen with them also she was dark amber colored. There were about 20 beetles that i mashed but i am worried that the shb might have already laid in the brood that i saved from the tree , because they have been hauling pupae out the front door and tossing them. Are the bees cleaning up the shb larva that are in the frames or do i need to do something different ?
The frames are covered in bees and i believe the shb was slowing them down in the tree but there are alot of bees in the box.i do have 5 frames of drawn comb in the freezer so i could swap out all the frames if that needs to be done ? I have a feeder on them because they didnt have alot of stores to save and what they did have got pulled apart when i split the trunk of the tree. Is there anything else i can do to give them the best chance possible ?
NWF,
Sounds like you have done all the right things. You only put brood comb in the Nuc. Being a Nuc, you reduced the size, and the box is full of bees. The bees can handle the SHBs, remove the eggs and larvae as long as there are enough bees. They should not have any problems especially since you found the queen. A lot of the brood get damaged during a cut out so do not worry about that. The bees are being hygienic. That is a good thing.
Jim Altmiller
So the bees actually remove the shb eggs/larvae when they are laid in the cells ?
Yes. If they did not, hives would be slimed every time you inspected your hive or every time the hive swarmed. SHBs own the hive for at least 2 days before the bees get them under control again after these events.
Jim Altmiller