Caught a swarm earlier this spring and now will get more free bees.
A lady posted on FB that she wants to put down her aggressive hive but keep the honey. The bees stung her dad and husband, she said.
I told her I would take the bees and give her the honey, which we plan to do this afternoon after church and dinner.
It's a big hive! There are three 8-frame deeps and a medium super.
Will do a split on the spot by transferring frames to an empty insulated hive and some Pro Nuc Boxes. I'll be sure to get eggs and brood evenly distributed. The hive will be ready to set on the stand already there in the apiary and the nucs will go into an insulated Long Lang already in place in the apiary.
She wants me to keep all the hive parts, too.
And get this. I'll be able to back right up to them!
Sounds good. I hope for you that it was just by happenstance that the people just got stung by mistake or by aggravating the bees.
Is there a plan B if you show up and get attacked by angry bees?
It?s still free equipment either way. Yay!
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Father,
There is a good chance that the hive went queen less and they are up set. Check for eggs and prepare for replacing the queen.
Jim Altmiller
Awesome! As Jim said, check for eggs making sure there is a queen.
Just a suggestion: I don't know your set up or know if you are raising new bees, splits, and or queens as of now? If so and this hive is really mean, really aggressive; I am suggesting that you take them to an isolated location, away from other bees, including yours. Far enough away from other bees that the drones which may already be present can't find virgins to breed. Destroy all drone brood to slow down the mean genetic cycle, (you don't want mean drones breeding your gentle natured virgins, in your home yard if you are raising some), or anyone else's for that matter. Change the queen out with a good gentle natured bred queen, and give the hive time to repopulate with a gentle strain of bee. As the mean bees naturally die off. In the meantime they will continue to bring in the honey as long as there is a flow, making for a smooth easy gradual transition to a gentle hive. Congratulations!
Some say drones fly far away to mate, Honeypump has taught us that virgins will and sometimes will mate with drones from the same yard.
The splits should calm them down, bet their is some aggravate factor, as weed eater and lawn mower
It went okay, I guess, for my first time to do this kind of thing.
She had seven frames in eight frame boxes, which made for a couple of interesting cross comb situations.
The bees were not aggressive.
There were brood at all stages. In all there were only ten frames of brood. They were evenly divided. A five frame, queenless nuc went into the Long Lang.
I saw the queen; she looks like a nice Cordovan and went it into the Bee Box hive with five frames of brood.
The top super had no honey in it at all, no comb even drawn. The medium super had some honey. I took it for my Bee Box hive at her request.
She got four deep frames that were full of capped honey, which is what she wanted.
Win, win.
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It is good to hear they were gentle. This was a blessing! Congratulations.....
Did you have much trouble straightening out the cross comb problem?
Quote from: .30WCF on June 06, 2021, 09:42:15 PM
Win, win.
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Amen.
Quote from: Ben Framed on June 06, 2021, 10:11:07 PM
It is good to hear they were gentle. This was a blessing! Congratulations.....
Did you have much trouble straightening out the cross comb problem?
When I pulled them apart most of the comb went with one side. Left them that way for now because there was brood in them.
Can?t beat that.
Blessings, yes Sir. Could not happen to a better guy. Glad for you FM.
Congrats Michael. I am glad God worked it out for you that way. It's a nice boost for your apiary.
Thanks, Van and Nock,
They had not been inspected since last September.
Checked on them today and treated with Apiguard.
It seems that a lot of bees from the Long Lang migrated over to the Bee Box.
How far apart do splits need to be?
Quote from: Bob Wilson on June 07, 2021, 09:42:25 PM
Congrats Michael. I am glad God worked it out for you that way. It's a nice boost for your apiary.
Thanks, Bob.
It sure makes up for that winter loss! I wanted to get ahead this year. It seems I may but with a little more finagling, perhaps?