New Bees

beesonhay465 · July 15, 2020, 07:03:22 PM

welcome to the obsession. i noticed in your pic of eyelet tool an end frame that apears to have tacks in the end. are these spacers?

FatherMichael · July 15, 2020, 08:38:05 PM

Welcome!

That is all so awesome!

.30WCF · July 15, 2020, 10:13:57 PM

Quote from: beesonhay465 on July 15, 2020, 07:03:22 PM
welcome to the obsession. i noticed in your pic of eyelet tool an end frame that apears to have tacks in the end. are these spacers?

For a fast way to tie the wire.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

.30WCF · July 15, 2020, 10:15:14 PM

BTW, I?m not even really sure that?s a queen, but I marked her to keep an eye on her. That was a couple days after a queen cell was found open.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

.30WCF · July 16, 2020, 12:58:24 AM

I?ll try to make a video of the wire tying next time I get a chance.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

.30WCF · July 17, 2020, 10:11:59 PM

Got a few underway

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

.30WCF · July 18, 2020, 10:18:32 PM

Looks
Like that was a young queen after all in that little nuc split. Still no eggs. I first found and marked her on 7/3. She is at least 15 days old.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

.30WCF · July 18, 2020, 10:20:06 PM

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

.30WCF · July 19, 2020, 05:57:14 PM

Scratch that. Looks like the queen from the spilt I did a couple weeks ago ended up in the nuc somehow. The split I had the put that queen in has been robbed out and only a few sparse frames of bees were in there. She is laying. I found some eggs in there today. I dumped the bees out of the robbed out box and put all that equipment away.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

.30WCF · July 19, 2020, 06:04:11 PM

I did find a new queen in the hive that had been queenless so long. She has started to lay and there are some young larvae. I marked her once I found her. The first pic has her as an unmarked queen.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

.30WCF · July 19, 2020, 09:56:55 PM

Was that smaller one I marked a queen and the other queen from the robber hive absconded and moved into the nuc and killed her? The other marked bee is not present.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

.30WCF · July 20, 2020, 11:40:56 PM

I now have moved the frames from the nuc that I had on the post style hive stand into a nuc I made last week. So to recap. I screwed up. I was leaving for two weeks and put a hive top feeder on blocks near the new split with the queen that came out of one of the original hives, and the weak split in the nuc. I didn?t have enough feeders to go around, so I figured I would offer free choice feeding, you know, like they are cows or something. I imagine a feeding frenzy ensued. And that probably turned into a robbing situation between the four hives.
Looks like the split with the slate top got robbed out. Nothing but some scant bees and dry comb. They absconded and took over the weak nuc next to it. The queen started laying some and seems at home. I dumped the robbed out hive and put everything away. The bees bearded on the nuc and were all inside it by nightfall. This morning a got up early and trapped them in the nuc, added the dry drawn comb from the robbed hive and took them for a drive to give them a change of scenery. Several miles separated and Mason Jar top feeders should give them something to put in those empty frames since the stores had almost been depleted also. I?ll let them get some brood going and sugar water honey before I retrieve them back to my house.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

.30WCF · July 23, 2020, 08:52:10 PM

Neglected to bring my smoker to the remote nuc for inspection. 20minutes later with some scrap out of the truck and Shazam!! Who said you cant fix anything with duct tape?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ben Framed · July 23, 2020, 09:44:19 PM

Quote from: .30WCF on July 14, 2020, 09:06:49 PM
Quote from: FloridaGardener on July 14, 2020, 08:07:41 PM
How many bees are you planning for...?
I thought you were buying some from me.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

30 If you are intending to eventually selling nucs you might be on to something being there are now many folks who beekeep in Medium Langstroth Bee Hives these days. You might 🐝 busting into a wide open market!

.30WCF · July 23, 2020, 10:19:11 PM

Quote from: Ben Framed on July 23, 2020, 09:44:19 PM
Quote from: .30WCF on July 14, 2020, 09:06:49 PM
Quote from: FloridaGardener on July 14, 2020, 08:07:41 PM
How many bees are you planning for...?
I thought you were buying some from me.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

30 If you are intending to eventually selling nucs you might be on to something being there are now many folks who beekeep in Medium Langstroth Bee Hives these days. You might busting into a wide open market!

Well, I was just joking. I have to stop killing all my bees if I want to raise some for other people.

This little nuc that had no resources last week, now is full of syrup in the top box, a fair amount of pollen, and lots of larvae and some capped.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

.30WCF · July 24, 2020, 05:07:12 AM

Here is that smoker I made yesterday in action.

https://youtu.be/s8pHthtmrgk

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

beesonhay465 · July 25, 2020, 09:30:57 AM

that new smoker is trick. personally i don't use dont own a smoker, too cheap .i make a small fire throw some wet straw on it and smoke myself . after a couple of min. of that the bees ignore me . if i want to move some bees i have a brush made from pheasant tail feathers, it is also smoked.its all a lot of fun. however im trying to sell my hives bees and all. soon to be 85 lifting a full super from the top of a chin high hive is too much.

.30WCF · July 25, 2020, 11:27:11 AM

Quote from: beesonhay465 on July 25, 2020, 09:30:57 AM
that new smoker is trick. personally i don't use dont own a smoker, too cheap .i make a small fire throw some wet straw on it and smoke myself . after a couple of min. of that the bees ignore me . if i want to move some bees i have a brush made from pheasant tail feathers, it is also smoked.its all a lot of fun. however im trying to sell my hives bees and all. soon to be 85 lifting a full super from the top of a chin high hive is too much.

You could scale down to just keeping nucs and stack them 2-3 boxes high if you wanted to keep after it a little bit just for the fun of it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

.30WCF · July 25, 2020, 12:16:13 PM

Checked the hives at the house today.
The hive I split 21 days ago still has no eggs. There hasn?t been a queen cell in there for two weeks. No brood for two weeks either.
I moved over a frame of eggs and young larvae from the new queen next to it.
Best case is a queen returns from a long mating flight. Next best is I raise a new queen and she starts laying around end of September.
I can combine or dump them out and save the empty comb.
What sounds best this time of year if I don?t see a queen or eggs by next week or the week after?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

beesonhay465 · July 25, 2020, 03:43:17 PM

im a new beekeeper 1 year . if it was my hive i would take a frame of brood and eggs and shake off all the bees and build a screen cage about 6x10 to cover some brood and honey and eggs. and install this in the troubled hive after one week there should be some new bees bound to the new queen and some brood . this will serve to stop laying workers and cause the new queen to be accepted the cage can then be removed. i was at the point of doing this [ built a cage and priced a local queen] decided to wait a few more days and finally found some capped brood and realized they were ok.