First Cutout

Kev · May 27, 2007, 09:39:18 PM

Hi folks,

Haven't checked in for a while, the gardening season is underway here in the frozen north. On Friday I and my mentor did a cut-out, my first. We got lots of healthy bees out of an old barn. They are now installed in one of my hives and appear to be doing quite well.

I have no idea if we got the queen safely or not. We took out 6 five-gallon pails of comb and honey. I boiled it down to separate, but what an unbelievable mess! I strained the melted gunk, but it still came out pretty black, with all the travel stain and pupa case.

It's packed air tight for now. Tomorrow night, I plan to drain out the honey and filter it to see how it looks then.

Tasted some of the honey today. It's dark and strongly flavored. Not very good table honey.

If anyone has tips on getting honey out of wild comb, let me know. That was one hot, sticky, rather unpleasant job. (I got stung on my fingertips from entrapped bees. THAT really SMARTS!)

Kev

Kirk-o · May 27, 2007, 10:47:12 PM

When I do a cut out the old comb with honey is pretty hard to salvage sometimes .So I put it on top of the frames in the new hive and cover with a empty medium let the bees clean it up
kirko

Understudy · May 27, 2007, 10:53:31 PM

And where are the pictures. :)

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Fannbee · May 28, 2007, 12:52:34 AM

I did my first cutout yesterdayâ€¦. old deer camp houseâ€¦the comb was six feet longâ€¦. very large hive. Got a couple of buckets of honey and seven solid frames of brood. While it was very easy to get to the hive, it took me over four hours to remove and I had two helpers. I was whipped. No wonder the more experience local beekeepers say they do not do cutouts.

The old house (more like a shed) had another hive in the outside wall. It had a lot of bees and roughly the same amount of comb, but not much brood. What brood it did have contains a lot of mites.

Couple of questions...I believe I did not get the queen, what should I do? Also, mixed some very dark comb honey with newer comb honey. Do I need to remove the old comb honey?

Understudy · May 28, 2007, 12:58:50 AM

You must remove as much of the comb as possible. If you don't the comb will attract other pests. Or it will rot and leak everywhere.

If you do not see a queen or fresh brood after a week you need to give them a queen or fresh larva so they can make one.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Brian D. Bray · May 28, 2007, 01:02:56 AM

To add to what Understudy says. It is professional to clean up the work area. Removing all of the wax and honey is a must or the problem will return. I've known bees to chew through the wall of a house after the owner killed a swarm within his wall with insecticide. The nex year the bees returned and made a new door.

Michael Bush · May 28, 2007, 01:10:54 AM

>If anyone has tips on getting honey out of wild comb, let me know.

Crush and strain if it's clean enough. Otherwise, just feed it to the bees.

Fannbee · May 28, 2007, 01:50:27 AM

Sorry for the confusion...I did remove all the comb...
I was talking about the honey and comb I took home....Michael answered the question...

thanks

qa33010 · May 29, 2007, 03:05:41 AM

My feral cut out didn't have a queen or we killed it somewhere along the line, that was two years ago July. I went back in after about a week and saw what I learned were emergency cells from the eggs or young brood. That queen lasted a couple of months and was superceded in a warm October month. She's still laying strong.

Kev · June 02, 2007, 01:50:08 PM

Quote from: Understudy on May 28, 2007, 12:58:50 AM

If you do not see a queen or fresh brood after a week you need to give them a queen or fresh larva so they can make one.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Checked today, 1 week after. I see no brood at all. How long should I wait before requeening?

Kev

BTW, forgetting the camera = no pics

Robo · June 02, 2007, 02:36:03 PM

The queen usually starts laying within a couple days. If after a week you see no sign of eggs or brood, it is a good chance you didn't get the queen.

Kev · June 02, 2007, 05:42:38 PM

Quote from: Robo on June 02, 2007, 02:36:03 PM
The queen usually starts laying within a couple days. If after a week you see no sign of eggs or brood, it is a good chance you didn't get the queen.

It was pretty strange, we didn't really see any brood at all. I guess I'll combine them with a nuc I've got coming.

kev

Robo · June 02, 2007, 10:03:55 PM

Just curious, did you see any queen cells when doing the cut-out. If there was little or no brood, they may have just swarmed before you did the cut-out.

Kev · June 03, 2007, 02:03:05 PM

Quote from: Robo on June 02, 2007, 10:03:55 PM
Just curious, did you see any queen cells when doing the cut-out. If there was little or no brood, they may have just swarmed before you did the cut-out.

I don't recally seeing any queen cells. My mentor, Jake, thinks the hive may have had a new queen that hadn't started laying.

I watched the entrance for a while this morning. I reduced the entrance, and there are lots of bees waiting there. They defending the nest from anything that comes near. I watched them go after an ant. I don't know if that tells me anything about what's going on inside, though.

I haven't inspected all the old comb that's in the hive, yet. A lot of it's stuck together. Since I poked around in there for a good while yesterday, I thought I'd wait another week to see.