small cutout aftermath

[rober]

I did a cutout this morning. it was really small. I rubber-banded the comb into 2 frames. I found the queen & caught her with a queen clip & vacuumed up the bees. there was a lot of uncapped nectar in this hive & after vacuuming the bees were pretty wet. when I got them home they were still pretty wet. I installed them in a nuc & sprayed some of them with water to see if it would help them get cleaned up. I put the queen in the hive but left her in the queen clip to give the bees some time to get themselves groomed & clean. they were hived by 3:00 p.m.. i'll check them in a couple of hours & decide whether to release the queen tonight or in the morning. any other advise on dealing with nectar soaked bees??

[BlueBee]

I think you did the right thing.  I've sprayed them down with water before as well.  It's about all you can do in that situation.  Won't save them all, but it will help.

[rober]

this is the 4th time I've used this vac. the bees always seem to end up wet. why is this true. my vac is similar in design to robo's.

[Robo]

wet bees is a sign of overheating.

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[rober]

hmmmm, now I need to figure out why they've overheated. when I vacuumed I immediately remove the end where the vacuum attaches which exposes the screen. I then put the bees in the shade.

[Kathyp]

might need less suction?  enough to get the bees but not enough to empty cells?

you might also need to do more by hand.  if the bees are on comb that's open nectar and you don't want to suck that up, you may need to take them out by hand and put them in the hive.

[rober]

I do try to regulate the vac to the point that there's just enough suction to barely pull in the bees. I also only vac when there's no other way to get them. i'll try cutting back some more on the suction & removing them from the vacuum more quickly.