Follow Up: Compost bin cut out

[Understudy]

Well I went and did the compost bin cut out today. Today's lessons include the following:

1. You can put you head in a bee hive and not cause them to go nuts and start stinging you all over.

2. The sound of bees buzzing in a compost bin has a huge echo that is deafining and very intimidating.

3. Bees in the wild make comb of all different size diameters. The honeycomb was of a very large diameter. The brood comb was of a very small diameter.

4. Bees in the wild make comb that is very secure at the top and very flimsy at the bottom. If I had flipped over the hive the comb would have folded over. The comb also had huge burr runs inbetween it near the top. So you could cut it at the top and it would stay up because it had all these reinforment points on the side.

5. It is still darn hard if not impossible to find the queen. I wanted this queen really badly. 4 huge pieces of brood comb with capped cells she is a good queen. In a nest of 20,000 + bees she can hide easily. I did not find her.

6. The bees from this hive cleaned of the honeycomb I cut out and put in a seperate container in 4 hours. I have never seen anything like that. That was almost 30 lbs/ 13.6 kg . I am amazed.


I have never been more nervous doing a cut out. My legs were literally shaking as I stuck my head up in the compost bin. I would cut away a section of comb put it in the tupperware if it was honey and in the frame if it was brood. After cutting each piece I would inspect it thoughly looking for the queen and health issues. I would then stand back up in the hive. I kept breathing in an out through my nose so I didn't directly breath on the hive. After cutting out all the pieces I put a piece of plywood on the stand. I shook any remaining bees into the hive boxes I brought. I noticed a lot of bees died gorging themselves on the honeycomb.

My wife took a lot of pictures but doesn't realize you can't shoot into the sun. So many of the pictures look funny. However since so many pictures were taken I am going to link the first one and then you can click through the rest.



I have left the hive boxes on the stand and placed the compost bin next to the stand upside down. I will take the hive boxes home home in a day or two.

One final note I spent almost 6 hours doing this cut out from arrival to final clean up. I wanted to find that darn queen.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Kathyp]

that's cool.  i use am mp3 player to drown out the bee buzz.  usually it's a book that i'm listening to and if i concentrate on that, the bees don't bother me.

i see you didn't use gloves.  did you get stung?  did you find the queen, or do you think you got her? did you put the honey in the super along with the other comb?   please keep us posted on how this hive does later on.

[IndianaBrown]

Very nice going!  Thanks for sharing the description and the photos.  I hope to do as well I get a chance to do a cutout.

The honeycomb was of a very large diameter. The brood comb was of a very small diameter.

Interesting.  This matches what I have read elsewhere, (MB, Bee Wrangler, and others.)  That is why I am slowly working on switching to starter strips in my deeps for brood (natural cell) but will keep on using the Peirco medium frames I originally bought in my honey supers (larger cell, and no strength worries for extracting.)

[Understudy]

that's cool.  i use am mp3 player to drown out the bee buzz.  usually it's a book that i'm listening to and if i concentrate on that, the bees don't bother me.

i see you didn't use gloves.  did you get stung?  did you find the queen, or do you think you got her? did you put the honey in the super along with the other comb?   please keep us posted on how this hive does later on.

I want hear the buzz. It lets me know what the bees attitude is.
I took 4 stings through the whole thing. One I got stung because a bee was in the grass and I put my hand down on top of it. The other three were also in the hand due to me pressing to hard on a bee when I held the comb. All in all I consider that pretty good.

No I did not find the queen. I am very ticked off that I didn't. I wanted her very badly.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[sean]

all may not be lost. Couldn't you still have her and just not seen her?

[Understudy]

all may not be lost. Couldn't you still have her and just not seen her?

Maybe, but unless I see her I am not hopeful.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[reinbeau]

So you do the cutout and then put them into a hive?  Do you put some of their comb in there somehow?  I've never been involved with or even read about a cutout, I'm curious.

[Understudy]

So you do the cutout and then put them into a hive?  Do you put some of their comb in there somehow?  I've never been involved with or even read about a cutout, I'm curious.

Yes I put the comb into empty frames and secure them with rubber bands. This is one of the few times I will use a deep.

You can also read more in the inital thread.
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php?topic=7374.0

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[mick]

The previous "wife" was right, we all nuts!

Good work, youre a persistant bugger. That queen must be somewhere!

[sean]

all may not be lost. Couldn't you still have her and just not seen her?

Maybe, but unless I see her I am not hopeful.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

But you'll know for sure in a few days.

[Cindi]

Brendhan, I gotta tell you that you got the guts!!!  Honestly, after getting several stings on my face from the swarm ladies that fell on me last summer, I would be more than reluctant to put my head into a container of bees.  I am shocked that you did not get stung on face.  Wonder why.  There must be a scientific reason surely.

Well, good for you, you had a successful day and a long one at that, bet you were exhausted.  Great day. Cindi

[Understudy]

Brendhan, I gotta tell you that you got the guts!!!  Honestly, after getting several stings on my face from the swarm ladies that fell on me last summer, I would be more than reluctant to put my head into a container of bees.  I am shocked that you did not get stung on face.  Wonder why.  There must be a scientific reason surely.

Well, good for you, you had a successful day and a long one at that, bet you were exhausted.  Great day. Cindi

I am not a completly foolish. I wore my veil. Bees landing on my face is much more disconcerting than anything else. Also since I have long hair they get trapped in it. So if I am doing something more than a cusory inspection. I wear a veil. You can see it in the pictures.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Cindi]

Brendhan, right on!!!  Now the thing about your hair.  Do you put it in a ponytail when you go out to the bees or do you always wear a veil?  Simply curious.

I ALWAYS wear a veil when I am working around the bees.  If I am just hanging out watching them or doing little things I don't bother, but man, when I get down and dirty with the bees, I would never in a million years think of heading (ha, get the pun) in their without veil on head.

I wear a ponytail most of the time when I am outside, I can't stand the hair in my eyes or face, so I am ponytailed most of my life.

I have had the unfortunate experience of having bees caught in my hair and I don't like it one little bit.  It is an eerie feeling and the sound of the bee buzzing drives me nuts.  Ponytail it is or a bun thing.

This is funny.  Last summer when I was doing a manipulation with the hives, my sister was out watching me.  She loves the bees and loves to watch me.  So she watched (she was about 15 feet away)  Well, I guess one of the girls got it into her head that my sister was the intruder that was annoying their colony.  A bee actually went inside her ear.  Well...if that doesn't cuffuffle your innerds!!!  She was running all over screaming the bee was in her ear.  Oh brother!!!!  I told her to stop screaming and stand still.  Right...try and do that when a bee is in your ear, buzzing away.

So eventually stood still.  The bee probably didn't like the little space and came back out and then stung her on the cheek.  Not in the ear (ha, of course that would have been a little difficult to perform anyways).  Think about it, right?

Now what I think is the odd part about it.  The bee had the foresight to exit the ear and then move several "paces" and then sting her.  So the bee had motive.  It was gonna get her as soon as she could get out of the ear channel.

Now I wonder if my sister has interesting ears or if she emits a pheromone from her ear channel that attracts insects (LOL).  About a week later she came roaring over to me and told me that a fly had tried to go in her ear.  I am sitting here right now laughing a little bit out loud.  My poor husband, I think that he thinks that I am a little crazy to be laughing while I am typing, but laugh I shall do.

Now, if you don't think that his poor young lady has a paranoia now about things trying to get into her ear, I don't know what.  I went out last summer after these two incidents about the bugs and her ears and bought her a pair of orange ear plugs.  This was so that when she was watching the bees with me that she didn't have to worry about them getting in her ears.  Poor Nina.

I can't wait until this summer to see if there are more than just bees and flies that like the look of her pretty little ears.  Great day.  Cindi

[Understudy]

Brendhan, right on!!!  Now the thing about your hair.  Do you put it in a ponytail when you go out to the bees or do you always wear a veil?  Simply curious.

I wear it in a ponytail and tuck it inside my shirt so it is not exposed.
I only wear a veil if I am dealing with an unfamilar hive or if I am doing a deep level inspection.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Kathyp]

I have had the unfortunate experience of having bees caught in my hair and I don't like it one little bit.

the hair thing can be a pain.  i have pretty long hair too.  usually i remember to tuck it in to my shirt, but that last time i was running across the field ripping my veil off, was because i didn't tuck in the hair.  not only did they stick in my hair, but went up my neck into my face.  even so, the only sting i got was a very small one through my jeans...go figure.

cindi, i'm with you, understudy has guts!!

[reinbeau]

My hair is always in a ponytail, too, when I'm out in the garden, also when working with bees - and then it's covered with a full beesuit (I'm still ascared of them a bit!  ;))

[Understudy]

I went to check on the hive today.

They absconded.

:'(

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[buzzbee]

Any chance they went back home?

[sean]

sorry to hear, after all that work

[Kev]

That stinks, sorry to hear it.

kev