Stella's Social Club

[1muttsfan]

Take ice water and plan to pull out early if you have to - at least you are showing up.

A local museum has asked me to photograph some of their artifacts, and they do not have any decent lighting. Stuff like beaded material, baskets, moccasins. Do you have a suggestion for a light stand or setup that would not be too expensive, and would light them up properly? I am having focus issues due to the lack of light.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Ugh, change in plans. People driving in from San Francisco to see the house. Gotta put my paint project stuff away and straighten and clean for a showing. Sell already! Dang.

A showing is still potential!

 

[drumstick diva]

X 2

 

[The Sheriff]

Just got back in. They stayed an hour and 45 minutes.

 

[holm25]

Just got back in. They stayed an hour and 45 minutes.

Did it go well??

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Rinda, do you thin your queen cells? I've read that the first queen that hatches will kill the rivals, but then I also read if you don't cull them down to 2 or 3 the hive will throw swarms? Now I don't know what to do?

Haha not literally throwing- but it's a pretty amazing sight to watch a large swarm going nuts!

Yes the first queen(s) to hatch will search out and destroy other queen cells or queens. It will be a fight to the death if two hatch at once. Have you ever heard a queen piping? You should look it up on youtube, very unique sound they make when they are searching for each other in the hive. Only queens make it and only in the presence of queen pheremones from another queen.

If we are wanting to split, we will split the hive and leave the queen with lots of space in one hive and the best 2-3 queen cells in the other. Or as many splits as we want to make if there are more. Otherwise yes we destroy the queen cells, switch top and bottom box, and add a deep or super to give them more room. We just tried a new method of grafting queens, destroying queen cells and using the enclosed royal jelly to prime the graft cells. My last batch was a complete bust so I'm hoping this batch takes better. We also locked a bunch of young bees in to a queenless nuc for 24 hours before giving them the queen cell bars. I'm probably confusing everyone but you with all that technical talk... sorry guys.

Take ice water and plan to pull out early if you have to - at least you are showing up.

X2

Just got back in. They stayed an hour and 45 minutes.

That's a good sign!

 

[The Sheriff]

Take ice water and plan to pull out early if you have to - at least you are showing up.

A local museum has asked me to photograph some of their artifacts, and they do not have any decent lighting. Stuff like beaded material, baskets, moccasins. Do you have a suggestion for a light stand or setup that would not be too expensive, and would light them up properly? I am having focus issues due to the lack of light.

Maybe a cheap light box kit. They are available on Amazon. Are you able to move the pieces? If so you could put them in the lightbox and aim the light through the side of the fabric.

 

[1muttsfan]

I can, some of them are flat and some 3 dimensional, under a foot or so in size. For some of the items out in the museum I was thinking a light with maybe one of those umbrella things (deflector?) on a stand would help disperse the shadows.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Thanks Rinda, makes perfect sense to me. I guess I should get back in there and remove some of the queen cells. All of mine are on the same frame. And yes, I've already looked up queen piping.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Thanks Rinda, makes perfect sense to me. I guess I should get back in there and remove some of the queen cells. All of mine are on the same frame. And yes, I've already looked up queen piping.

Before you do- double check the laying pattern of your queen. You don't need to see her, just look for eggs and larvae. You want a good solid laying pattern of similarly aged larvae, with very few missing spots. If any of the queen cells are in the center of the frame those are usually supercedure cells- the workers trying to intentionally replace their queen. Often this is a sign that she is aging, injured or just not performing well enough.

Just in case you are unsure: The queen in this link has a very nice brood pattern. https://sp.yimg.com/ib/th?id=JN.p4SnxFM3Rp0tN8EfQkYBtA&pid=15.1&P=0

This queen needs replacing. https://sp.yimg.com/ib/th?id=JN.PGejNNALan/NXSE9P3xrRw&pid=15.1&P=0