A BEE thread....for those interested in beekeeping.

[PotterWatch]

Quote:
I have been told to follow the 7/10 rule. When they have seven frames out of ten filled, put on another box. Take one of the filled frames and put it in the middle of the box you are placing on top to give the queen a bit of a ladder to climb up.

 

[ther00ster'scr0w]

A question about moving a swarm:

I have never kept bees before and now I have a swarm from my grandma that decided to move into an empty cabinet in her backyard. My uncle, who kept bees, got a brooder box with all the equipment and on Sunday we moved most of the hive into the new hive.

Today I went out and it seem that the bees are still in their old hive, which is only a few feet away from the new location. We put the parts of the comb on the outside of the new hive (I think he said this was so that they could transfer it into the new one).

Any suggestions on what to do or anything that we did wrong or should do? thanks!

 

[sgtmom52]

Typically you need to move the new hive at least 3 miles away for 3 days then you can move it back to the new location. The forager bees still think the old hive is home and are going back there.

 

[JP33]

ther00ster'scr0w :

A question about moving a swarm:

I have never kept bees before and now I have a swarm from my grandma that decided to move into an empty cabinet in her backyard. My uncle, who kept bees, got a brooder box with all the equipment and on Sunday we moved most of the hive into the new hive.

Today I went out and it seem that the bees are still in their old hive, which is only a few feet away from the new location. We put the parts of the comb on the outside of the new hive (I think he said this was so that they could transfer it into the new one).

Any suggestions on what to do or anything that we did wrong or should do? thanks!

The cabinet is still familiar to them and they went right back to it. You need to transfer the bees back into the new set up. Place the new hive in the exact spot the old one is in now. Remove the cabinet and any brood comb, discard the brood comb as it is now unusable.

Our bees stay put 99% of the time after a transfer but you may want to use a queen excluder if you have one, at least temporarily until the hive is anchored in the new equipment.

You do not have to move the hive, just place it in the exact spot the cabinet was in and all the bees will return to the new equipment.

If you have any questions or concerns you can PM me.


...JP​

 

[JP33]

Quote:
You can move a brood frame from the other hive but it must have eggs (3 days old or less) in it. They can only raise a new queen from an egg not from larva. Put the frame in the center of the brood area of the queenless hive.

Before you do this you may want to recheck the hive again ~ in addition to looking for the queen look for eggs ~ if you find eggs the queen has been there within the last 3 days. It is not always easy to find the queen, esp if she is not marked ~ much easier to see the eggs.

Good Luck!

Please don't take offense sgtmom but I must point out that bees can make a queen from young larvae no older than 3-4 days old. When you graft to make queens, you graft young larvae and transfer these to cell cups. The bees draw the cups out just fine, feed the larvae and make new queens.

If one wants a newly queenless hive to make a new queen, a brood frame with eggs and or very younger larvae from another hive will suffice.


...JP

 

[SurprisingWoman]

I haven't opened up my hive to do an inspection yet since our weather has been cold and horrible.

We have had a few warm afternoons and I have gone out and sat by the hive. Those soldier bees sure do a good job of checking out possible threats to the hive! They know when I am there and come out to check on me all the time. Pretty cute. They have not been aggressive to me but I can tell I am being assessed.

My question is, if I "work" with my bees more, do inspections, remove the top cover and just check on things... not major inspections just fairly regular contact... will they be easier to work with?

I know it works on animals but will it work with bees? I would love to have them be more comfortable with being looked at and I am just enthralled with watching them.

 

[Mr_Jeff]

They'll be easier to work with the more time you spend with them because you'll be more comfortable with them. Bees don't live very long, so it's not really their concern who you are.

 

[sgtmom52]

Quote:
No offense taken! I understand that the workers can make a queen from a very young larva however I think that many new beekeepers would have a difficult time telling a how old the larva is so by transferring eggs you would be certain that you had ones young enough to develop into queens. Perhaps I should have worded it differently.

Thanks for keeping me on my toes!

 

[wing it]

bee pics. These are some of mine at work today. Not much more to say

 

[Beekissed]

Wonderful pics!!! So clear and vibrant! This is all great info on here and I am learning so much. Getting my bees next week!!!