Switching out Larger Super need help!!!

annette · August 19, 2007, 07:54:35 PM

I posted this morning, but in the wrong place.

Need input on the following please!!

One hive is 3 mediums and this is good for the winter.

The other hive is large full super on bottom and 3 mediums on top.

Today, I placed a queen excluder on top of the large full super in the hopes of finally being able to remove this full super. I want to go with all mediums and since I need to reduce the size of the hive for winter I thought I could do it this way.

My problem is I could not find the queen. There is brood all over the place so she could have been in that bottom super.

I do not really see the problem as if she is not in that super then the brood will hatch out in 2 weeks and I could remove that super. If she happens to be in that super, then the brood will hatch out in the other supers and I could just remove one of those. She has more than enough room to lay in the bottom super if she is trapped down there. I could also check in about 1 week to make sure she has enough room, if she happens to be trapped down there.

I have an upper entrance also so I would not be trapping any drones.

Does this sound ok to everyone here?

Let me know
Annette

rdy-b · August 19, 2007, 08:50:47 PM

Why do you want to make it smaller are there enough bees to fill the boxes now need pics :) you can try smoking the hive heavily through the bottom entrance and the queen will move up and place the excluder over the deep and see what happens then if successful remove the deep you may lose some food resources doing that. if there are lots of bees maybe you could run it and see which one dose better thats whats fun when learning with more than one colony RDY-B

Robo · August 19, 2007, 10:05:49 PM

Marking your queens sure comes in handy in times like these. You should be fine, check back in a week and you will know which side of the excluder she is on. Then you'll have less room to search for her.

Michael Bush · August 19, 2007, 10:12:46 PM

In four days she's in the area with eggs. If there are no eggs in the bottom box and there are eggs in the top boxes then she's up top. If there are eggs in the bottom and none up top, she's in the bottom.

rdy-b · August 19, 2007, 10:36:06 PM

if she is fistey when you start to open and take the hive apart she will be any where she wants some queens are very sensitive to sun light and some not you can always roll up your sleeves and do a frame by frame inspection and earn another merit badge :) sometimes on a hot colony that is to bothersome to tear down i will take a frame of brood from another colony and place it in the hot colony and put lid back on in a short time the queen will be on that frame this works for me i hope it helps you ;) RDY-B

annette · August 19, 2007, 11:20:27 PM

RDY-B

I remembered your method of finding the queen and I did place a frame of brood from my other hive in the upper medium first in the hopes of getting the queen to go up there. I did not want to spend the time looking for her, I was just hoping she would go up there before I placed the excluder on. I may not have waited around long enough after doing that though to give her a chance to get up there. Not sure how fast it happens and I did not want to keep the hive opened to much longer.

Also I am making it smaller because there are to many supers for them to winter in. Yes I have enough bees now, but I always thought it necessary to bring them down in size for the winter. Also they are filling the top super with nectar right now due to a small flow, but there is still lots of room in that top medium and I think it will just be to much room for the winter. The middle medium (the one just below the top super is totally filled with capped honey) When I remove the larger bottom super, then I plan on placing that top medium which has room, in between the other 2 and leave them the 3 mediums for winter.

But you brought up a good point. There is lots of pollen in that bottom larger super and I was worried about losing that food for them, but I have been introducing starter strips into the medium brood box and not into that larger super (because I always wanted to remove it eventually) So I did not want to continue with this larger super, as I am feeding in these starter strips to change them over to small cell eventually.

Thank you Robo, Yes it would be so good now if she were marked.

Thanks Michael also. I will check back in a few days and look for eggs.

So this is my dilemma. I think this perhaps sounds confusing???? I guess I could just forget it all for the winter and try again in the spring when they would be bringing in pollen. How much pollen do they actually need for the winter anyway??

What do you all think?????

Annette

rdy-b · August 19, 2007, 11:48:41 PM

that colony of bees sounds like they have things the way they like them 8-) dont try to go to fast you have a good box of bees they will keep and may be they will bring in some manzanita come feb and march if they are strong you can get some if they are weak they will need to build up on it this winter is anybody's guess as far as weather there is a good article in ABJ about fat winter bees and pollen have you meet the wrighter he is from auburn way and nevada city keepers i think. his name is randy O :-D any way worth the read RDY-B

annette · August 20, 2007, 01:03:03 AM

I will decide this week what to do. I am starting to think that perhaps I should forget it for now and just remove that queen excluder for now.

I have worked with Randy Oliver and he is incredibly knowledgable although so busy. He has about 500 hives plus a job and family. I haven't read his article yet thought. Thanks for reminding me about it.

Thanks for the help.

Annette