what a mess

randydrivesabus · May 09, 2007, 06:41:10 PM

I just finished looking into my surviving hive from last year for the first time this year. it overwintered with 2 deeps and a medium. i had kind of experimented with the frames in the medium and it just didn't work out. they built some very pretty comb on the top of the frame bars of the top deep but it was kind of just a mountain of comb....it had some unsealed nectar in it (not very much) and a little unsealed brood (again not much). i dismantled the mountain with my gloved hands and my hive tool and put it on the ground near the hive thinking that the ladies will take back their nectar. i then put a different medium with frames with starter strips back on and closed up the hive. i saw some other unsealed brood in the top deep on one frame i inspected.
is there a problem with putting the mountain of comb on the ground? i plan to get it later.
any other comments are welcome.

Kathyp · May 09, 2007, 07:25:01 PM

i left a pile of stuff on the ground after that cut out i did in feb. they bees robbed it pretty clean before i took it in.

randydrivesabus · May 09, 2007, 07:58:29 PM

cool...thats what i'm going for here.

LET-CA · May 09, 2007, 09:47:09 PM

Most experts will tell you to keep your bee yard as clean as possible. Stuff you leave on the ground will attract small hive beetles and all kinds of other critters you don't want around. When I have frames to be cleaned I make sure they're off the ground. It's actually best to put them in a box on the hive to let the bees clean them up. Old comb scrapings, etc, should go directly into a garbage bag or can that you take away with you.

All the best!

Kirk-o · May 09, 2007, 10:23:23 PM

I'm always very careful here in L A or I get 5,000,000,000,000,000,001 ants
kirko

doak · May 09, 2007, 11:36:09 PM

When you have more than one colony, "never" leave loaded comb or a uncovered full super sitting sround.
This is the best way to get a "robbing" frenzy started. If one starts your work will be cut out for you.

On another note, I opened up the one that swarmed the other day. I fond several empty queen cells that looked like they had hatched. I left 4 that had not hatched, because I didn't find a queen, no eggs nor brood. I will have to keep an eye on it to see if a queen shows up.
It was an 8 frame job and I wanted to change to 10 frames.
So guess what I found in one of the boxes? yes I messed up. shallow frames in a medium super. :roll:
I was lucky I had a shallow 10 frame super. You should have seen the wild comb in the space the shallow frames left. Dummie me. ;)
doak

Jerrymac · May 10, 2007, 01:05:53 AM

I've had comb left out for the bees to clean up and it just disappears Have never figured out what critter gets it. Mice maybe? But sometimes it is big chunks just gone.

Moonshae · May 10, 2007, 07:40:22 PM

Quote from: Jerrymac on May 10, 2007, 01:05:53 AM
I Have never figured out what critter gets it. Mice maybe?

When I opened one of my dead hives in the spring, mice were piled up in the cinder block holes on which the hive was sitting, and they had bored a hole through the bottom to get into the hive. I see a lot of the pictures here have hives on milk crates, which I plan to adopt. My point is that mice are surely a likely culprit.

doak · May 10, 2007, 08:24:28 PM

O'Possem, Coons, Skunks/Polecats, Armadillos, stray cats, dogs, and on and on.
All these will take comb.
The skunk story. They will come to the hive at night and scratch on the side and catch the bees as they come to the entrance. If you find dead bees in front on the ground in little piles take a close look. You can tell by the exo-skeleton being nothing left but a husk The skunk sucks the fluid out then spits the husk out. "Really". If you have never found these dead bees like this, now if you do you'll know.
If one can control the situation it is a good way to clean up the comb after extracting. I like to put mine back on the top of the stack and then take off the next morning. Stack-em and moth ball-um. If the season is over.
doak :)