Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Mike R. on July 08, 2009, 05:36:34 pm
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Ok guys I got a ? I have an old hive at my grandfathers. It had one hive body and one super on it. The Hive body did not have any frames in it. But was loaded with bees and comb, honey and brood. When I removed the super It had honey and brood in it but in the process some of the brood and comb fell down in the hive body. Now I added another hive body on top with 10 empty frames with foundation. What I did next was, I took some of that brood,honey,comb,ect and put it in another hive body with only 5 frames of foundation and the super full of honey from the one I removed and set it on top of it. Hoping that I can get some of those bees to produce a queen from some of the capped brood. My ? is should I remove the old hive with all the bees and get them away or just leave them where they are and let them build up the second hive body????? :? :? :?
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Mike R., sounds like what you had was a mess :). First off, bees don't make queens from brood. They only make queens from very young larva. They also won't make a new queen if they are happy with the one they have and aren't in a swarming mood. I would continue to try to get them all onto frames so you can learn and work with them. Take the comb and rubber band it into empty frames and let them tie the comb to the frames. I wouldn't have the super with just foundation in it next. I'd have the one with the brood, honey and foundation next. When that foundation is built out and covered with bee's, then add the box with just foundation.
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rast is giving some good advice. Put the old comb into some empy frames and put the brood nest back together. I would let them set for a week or so and then add the new brood box with foundation, pull a couple of the brood frames up into the new brood box and replace those frames with foundtion frames in the first box. put the super back on top. might want to feed them just a little.
You might want to find the queen to make sure she did not get crushed.
once you have them in some managable frames then think about doing a split.
G3
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Ok update... I went and got the old hive and moved it to my house which is over 15miles away. I want to piece together some of the comb that is in the old hive body but I'm worried that I really gonna disturb them more than I've already have. I have replaced the super that had old comb and some honey. But before I did, I was told to just add another hive body with some brood foundation on top of the old. When i went to move it yesterday, there seemed to be a lot of bees on the new foundation in the new hive body that I had put on top. I really had a total mess when I started this little project. I'm gonna leave them alone for a while and let them regroup and start trying to pull some new comb on these new frames that I put in there. These bees were not aggressive at all and seems to be very gentle. I just hope I can get that queen to come up to the new hive box and bring the rest of the hive with her so I can replace that old one.....I will keep yall updated on the progress.....Thanks for the advice too. :-D :-D :-D