Post cut-out bee questions

asprince · July 28, 2008, 09:58:19 PM

I did a couple of cut outs lately and have a couple of questions.
1. The first cutout yielded a nice deep box of bees. I tied the brood to empty frames and place them in a box miles from the cutout site. Hive beetles took over in a matter of days! I think the brood comb was contaminated with SHB eggs. The bees left, did they migrate to another hive?

2. The second hive also yielded a nice deep box of bees. I placed them in a box with some brood from another hive. A week later there is half as many bees in the box. I see no dead bees. The ones that are left are doing great. Same question, did some of the bees migrate to my other hives?

Steve

Brian D. Bray · July 29, 2008, 01:02:28 AM

Quote from: asprince on July 28, 2008, 09:58:19 PM
I did a couple of cut outs lately and have a couple of questions.
1. The first cutout yielded a nice deep box of bees. I tied the brood to empty frames and place them in a box miles from the cutout site. Hive beetles took over in a matter of days! I think the brood comb was contaminated with SHB eggs. The bees left, did they migrate to another hive?

Absconded, the removal weaked the hive just enough for the SHB to get a toe hold and that routed the bees.

Quote2. The second hive also yielded a nice deep box of bees. I placed them in a box with some brood from another hive. A week later there is half as many bees in the box. I see no dead bees. The ones that are left are doing great. Same question, did some of the bees migrate to my other hives?

Steve

Seen the queen? Or are there queen cells? Sounds if most absconded and some remained with the brood so queen cells should be in evidence unless the you had a 2 queen cut out or missed a quleen cell during the cut out.

Next time use both the frame of brood and an excluder above the bottom board as an includer.

purvisgs · July 29, 2008, 02:33:39 AM

Next time, try putting a queen excluder over the bottom board (covering the entrance).. for at least a few days

From what you describe, it seems likely that:
-you got the queen and she left with a group (or all) of the bees (this seems to happen a lot, especially after going through the bee vac or similar "rough" treatment)
-you did not get the queen and the bees drifted to other hives because they were queenless

Sparky · August 29, 2009, 11:04:49 AM

I received a call to possibly remove bees from a stone wall near a persons basement door of their house. The woman is pretty confident that they are in dead honeybees. I am going to look at them myself tomorrow to see what the true situation is. The wall is described as a mortarless stone wall that she is not sure what is behind because the wall was built before she bought the house. I know this is a stretch without putting eyes on the conditions but here is my question. If their is another retaining wall behind the stone face that has a void between and they are honeybees, What would the experienced removers do to entice the bees to leave and possibly take up residence in, say a hive that I could put near the area with a screen funnel to the hive?

deknow · August 29, 2009, 11:41:37 AM

sparky,

you will never be able to reassemble a stone wall so that it looks like it did before you started.

brendhan (understudy) gave a talk about gradually pouring sand into the voids of cinderblocks to gradually drive the bees out (and to absorb the honey). something like this could be possible, i'd put a bait hive (with open brood...keep adding open brood and removing queen cells) near the entrance, and try to drive the bees out with the rising sand...a little at a time.

deknow

Sparky · August 29, 2009, 11:53:41 AM

Good thinking House Bee. I agree that the wall is better left intact and will know a little more tomorrow when I get a visual of conditions. That is what I kind of had in mind. To bait or drive them out someway. As far as the sand I'm not sure that the sand would not create a problem for the home owner. If the bees are between a block retaining wall and the stone face of mortarless wall the sand might keep spilling out the joints.

beecanbee · August 31, 2009, 04:15:01 AM

Does anyone use drumming? I use drumming to move bees down, and maybe out – depending upon where their entrance is in relation to their comb, and whether they have other areas they can move to in order to avoid the drumming. With a sufficient amount of drumming you ought to be able to get them to abscond and capture them in a net/cage as they crawl out. (Drumming is hammering/tapping with a rapid and steady rhythm.)

tandemrx · August 31, 2009, 01:21:56 PM

This is kind of a hijacked thread sparky,

But it sounds like this is a job for a trap out:

(and from what I understand, you don't funnel the bees to a hive - they will ignore it even if funned into it., the funnel just keeps them from re-entering the wall, and thus they take up residence in a hive placed next to the funnel that has brood frame in it)

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,20301.0.html

Sparky · August 31, 2009, 06:50:02 PM

Yea Tandemrx. I kind of thought about it and thought that the only way the funnel may work is to drive them out through the funnel if I could get Bee Quick or like above them in the wall. It turns out that it was yellow jackets like I though it would be, but it was not a wasted trip. The home owner was a retired school teacher that owns a bunch of land in front of her place that she has a agreement with a farmer that works up the fields and is not allowed to use pesticides and she offered me a place to keep some hives on the property. The best part is its only15 min. from my place.