Nice Large Colony In Wall Void-March 17, 2010

JP · March 18, 2010, 12:14:27 AM

Lots of bees some queen cups but bees still possibly a week out from swarming. Very strange year so far.

This was the largest colony I have removed this season so far. I'm hoping I vacumed the queen and she is ok. I had one mishap when a rather large comb section fell out of the wall and I'm afraid she may have gotten scrunched but we will see in the morning.

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/112138792165178452970/March172010#

...JP

joker1656 · March 18, 2010, 08:03:08 AM

Nice work, JP. It is inspiring to see those bees and their work. Even more so to see your work on removing/saving them.

Even though I learned some hard lessons (that I should have figured out without costing the bees so much) this winter, I am looking forward to my first removal of the year. I had a call already, but explained that it is a little to chilly yet.

Did the cages in the last few pics come with your vac? I am guessing you had to buy extra, but were they from the same manufacturer? I am about a day away from ordering the same vac. (i think it is the same based on an older post)

Anyway, nice and inspiring work.

Irwin · March 18, 2010, 09:25:40 AM

That would have made a great video ;) Nice job JP

JP · March 18, 2010, 09:41:12 AM

Quote from: joker1656 on March 18, 2010, 08:03:08 AM
Nice work, JP. It is inspiring to see those bees and their work. Even more so to see your work on removing/saving them.

Even though I learned some hard lessons (that I should have figured out without costing the bees so much) this winter, I am looking forward to my first removal of the year. I had a call already, but explained that it is a little to chilly yet.

Did the cages in the last few pics come with your vac? I am guessing you had to buy extra, but were they from the same manufacturer? I am about a day away from ordering the same vac. (i think it is the same based on an older post)

Anyway, nice and inspiring work.

Yes, its the one offered from Walter Kelley. It comes with two inner boxes, I purchased an extra one. I have two, one older, kind of worn out. So all in all I have six inner cages.

Irwin, I was thinking of you the whole time. I think certain segments of a cut out would be interesting but videos of swarms (shaking them) I believe would be most interesting, as removals take so dang long.

Hope to be getting that new camnera soon.

BTW, I see the main page of this forum has been revamped. Honeybee removal is now in Beekeeping Learning center. No more General Beekeeping section. Took me a while to find Honeybee removal, had to click onto Beekeeping Learning center to see that it is now within this heading.

...JP

David LaFerney · March 18, 2010, 10:51:03 AM

In the pictures it looks like a LOT of brood. How long did this take?

JP · March 18, 2010, 11:01:16 AM

Quote from: David LaFerney on March 18, 2010, 10:51:03 AM
In the pictures it looks like a LOT of brood. How long did this take?

I began at 2:30 in the evening and left there a little past 9 after having a new castle with the customer.

That is a pretty good beer, have to say, very smooth!

Probably could have left around 7:30 but it was a two story and had to lug all my stuff down and seal the access points where the bees were getting in from.

Then, I asked the customer if he would be interested in watching me shake the bees in the hive body, so we did that, then we had a beer.

Oh, and yes, lots of brood.

...JP

Kathyp · March 18, 2010, 11:01:45 AM

it's a beautiful thing!

JP · March 18, 2010, 02:27:36 PM

Quick update: So, my customer and I shook two of the three inner boxes of bees into a deep last night but there were way too many to fit in just that one deep, so this morning I shook the third one after adding a medium.

Before shaking them I went through the deep to see if I could spot the queen, carefully looking over each frame twice.

There were alot of bees in that deep!

Didn't see her.

Added the medium and shook the third box and guess who popped out, all swollen up, golden and beautiful!

She went right on down between the frames and after a little smoke, I put the lid on.

Would rather be lucky than good any day!

...JP

schawee · March 18, 2010, 11:56:55 PM

NICE JOB AND GREAT PICS JP.

Bee Happy · March 19, 2010, 07:29:20 PM

how much you figure the bees weighed? great pics as always.

JP · March 19, 2010, 09:54:51 PM

Quote from: Bee Happy on March 19, 2010, 07:29:20 PM
how much you figure the bees weighed? great pics as always.

My guess is around 6-6 and a half lbs of bees.

...JP

mtbe · March 22, 2010, 12:26:52 PM

So, a question from a newbee:

With all those bees not able to fit into one hive, and only one queen:

What do you do with the other hives (the ones without the queen)?

Scott Derrick · March 26, 2010, 12:07:48 AM

JP,

Dude that is a huge colony. Nice work my man. I'm working on the items we spoke about last week. Hang in there.

Bee's are kicking in SC.

JP · March 26, 2010, 12:13:46 AM

Hey Scott, good to see you on here again. Just shout at me when you can, appreciate it man.

mtbe, I'm sorry but I don't know if I quite understand your question.

...JP

G3farms · March 29, 2010, 12:25:35 AM

good job on getting them cut out and great pics.

lots of brood and drone brood and queen cells, no dought they were getting ready to swarm.

Do you think they will still swarm after you disrupted them so?
Did you leave any of the queen cells or just toss all of them?

G3

beee farmer · March 29, 2010, 01:05:13 AM

great whopping cutout! here is my vac! Home made about 40 bucks less time to build.

wd · March 29, 2010, 02:22:40 AM

Quote from: mtbe on March 22, 2010, 12:26:52 PM
So, a question from a newbee:

With all those bees not able to fit into one hive, and only one queen:

What do you do with the other hives (the ones without the queen)?

mtbe,

based on JP's comments (correct if I'm wrong JP) 6 to 6 1/2 lbs of bees with one queen fit into one deep hive body and one medium super. This means all bees removed - Colonies with one queen are common all though two queens in one colony is not unheard of. The norm is one queen per colony.

JP may have killed one queen in a two queen colony (J/k JP :-D) but there weren't any extras.

Quote from: JP on March 18, 2010, 02:27:36 PM
Quick update: So, my customer and I shook two of the three inner boxes of bees into a deep last night but there were way too many to fit in just that one deep, so this morning I shook the third one after adding a medium.

Before shaking them I went through the deep to see if I could spot the queen, carefully looking over each frame twice.

There were alot of bees in that deep!

Didn't see her.

Added the medium and shook the third box and guess who popped out, all swollen up, golden and beautiful!

She went right on down between the frames and after a little smoke, I put the lid on.

Would rather be lucky than good any day!

...JP

Quote from: JP on March 19, 2010, 09:54:51 PM
Quote from: Bee Happy on March 19, 2010, 07:29:20 PM
how much you figure the bees weighed? great pics as always.

My guess is around 6-6 and a half lbs of bees. ...JP

JP · March 30, 2010, 10:33:54 AM

Quote from: G3farms on March 29, 2010, 12:25:35 AM
good job on getting them cut out and great pics.

lots of brood and drone brood and queen cells, no dought they were getting ready to swarm.

Do you think they will still swarm after you disrupted them so?
Did you leave any of the queen cells or just toss all of them?

G3

G3, this hive had queen cups, no capped queen cells & nothing in the cups. They are in a build up mode now and doing quite well.

...JP