Need opinions please.

surjourner · March 07, 2010, 10:36:57 PM

Has any one possibly moved a feral colony from a wall section with a colony volume larger than 4.5-5 cubic feet over all?

I had to move a hive from a building being remodeled; had to take out whole section of wall intact. I had originally planned on leaving wall and moving bees into a top bar or warre hive except I didn't have enough. When I pulled off paneling their combs were over 6 feet long, even the brood combs. I lost a 1.5 foot section of one brood comb when I removed paneling.

Is there any way to transfer them without much damage to brood? I hate idea of cutting into it. We live in fire ant country and I need to get them transferred in next month or two to keep them from getting robbed by ants, as it will be very hard to get them to where ants can't get into their hive otherwise.

Thanks in advance.

Ollie · March 07, 2010, 10:43:32 PM

If such a big colony is split, just make sure that both halves have brood,eggs and larvae as well as honey and pollen...then you'll have 2 hives.
Keep the ants out by having a solid "ribbon" of petroleum jelly around the bottom board. on a top bar, around each leg..

Kathyp · March 07, 2010, 10:52:13 PM

i have had to cut brood comb when it wouldn't fit. i'm sure everyone has. when i do it, i try to make sure to leave the brood comb with eggs in it intact as much as i can and sacrifice capped brood. if i somehow lose the queen, my hope is to give them resources to make another. try to measure or eyeball it so that you can take out sections that will fit. that way you won't have to cut again and waste more brood.

you'll almost always lose some. getting the best of it and getting the queen are the most important things.

JP · March 07, 2010, 10:57:58 PM

If you get enough bees and the queen, most likely if she is a good laying queen, the genetics of this colony will survive.

All you can do is remove carefully what you can and do your transfer. If the colony is good and strong they will repair comb sections where need be.

You do not have to save or use every comb section to be successful.

If you do not get her, you of course will need eggs/very young larvae not more than 3-4 days old for the bees to make a new queen from the prior queen's genetics.

Hope this answers some of your concerns.

...JP

surjourner · March 07, 2010, 11:12:59 PM

I hadn't thought of petroleum jelly idea, thanks.

Yes it does help. I was just hoping there would be a less invasive (i.e., fewer casualties) way.

JP · March 07, 2010, 11:21:24 PM

Take your time, be gentle and thorough and you will have less losses than you think you will.

Remember, the key in doing a successful removal is surviving the genetics of the colony.

...JP

Kathyp · March 07, 2010, 11:40:27 PM

take time to look in the honeybee removal section of this forum. there is a list of equipment, and many suggestions on how to do it. also many pictures. JP has contributed lots of time and info, along with many others.

trapperbob · March 07, 2010, 11:53:20 PM

Just remember to make sure the comb is oriented in the right direction you can use string or rubberbands to put it in the frames. They will attach it fairly quickly and then they will remove the string or bands. There is no easy way to do this it's messy and time comsuming. Just take your time a good kitchen knife from you knife block works fine for this. Try to keep an eye out for the queen but don't be suprised if you don't see her you will probably get her and not know it.

surjourner · March 14, 2010, 12:03:09 PM

Just about finished with another tbh, soon as I put screen in bottom, so hopefully with two tbh's i'll be able to make a split and have enough to fit them all in.
Plums are starting to bloom now and they seem to be getting plenty of pollen because 3 out of 4 are coming in fully loaded with it. I guess it is about time to tackle it then.
Since I have never done a split, when putting in brood should I place all brood together or should I place food comb between brood comb to ensure they don't have to travel so far and reduce their stress?

JP · March 14, 2010, 02:32:53 PM

Quote from: surjourner on March 14, 2010, 12:03:09 PM
Just about finished with another tbh, soon as I put screen in bottom, so hopefully with two tbh's i'll be able to make a split and have enough to fit them all in.
Plums are starting to bloom now and they seem to be getting plenty of pollen because 3 out of 4 are coming in fully loaded with it. I guess it is about time to tackle it then.
Since I have never done a split, when putting in brood should I place all brood together or should I place food comb between brood comb to ensure they don't have to travel so far and reduce their stress?

Place all brood comb together, honey frames on the outside.

...JP

Look at this:

cow pollinater · March 14, 2010, 10:21:45 PM

I'm a cheater.
I cut out big hives by stapeling empty hive bodies together and then cutting out the colony and placing it as well as I can in the empty hived bodies. I then take standard drawn equipment and place it over a queen excluder. When I have time I sort through the mess and find the queen which I move over the excluder. Then I wait for the brood in the bottom mess to hatch and move the resourses up before I pull out the empty comb and hive bodies... FAST and easy. :-D
The only drawback is that sometimes in the confusion they will make queen cells in the bottom boxes but between scraping them as I find them and saving the laying queen I've had no problems.

surjourner · March 19, 2010, 11:36:20 PM

JP that was a big hive. What was that in?

JP · March 19, 2010, 11:48:42 PM

Quote from: surjourner on March 19, 2010, 11:36:20 PM
JP that was a big hive. What was that in?

http://picasaweb.google.com/pyxicephalus/February82008#

...JP