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Author Topic: Eggs for a trapout  (Read 6161 times)

Offline vmmartin

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Eggs for a trapout
« on: April 20, 2011, 11:43:09 pm »
I set up my first trapout Saturday after getting schooling from Mr. Iddee (thanks again).  While going through the box that I wanted to get my eggs from, I could not see any. Plenty of capped brood but very little larvae.  Since I could not see any eggs, I removed the queen from the frame that I found her on and placed her back into the hive and used that frame for me catch box.  Went by and did an exterior inspection of trapout yesterday and the entire front of the box was covered with bees and the cone was covered up as well.  I am going back tomorrow to peek inside.  Any thoughts about whether or not yall think I got eggs or maybe made a screwup in some other way?

Offline hardwood

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2011, 11:47:50 pm »
Your inspection will answer your questions. Keep us informed!

Scott
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

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Offline iddee

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2011, 12:00:08 am »
As Scott said, you will know tomorrow. If you had eggs, you had day old larva. If you find 2 to 10 queen cells, you will know you had eggs. If the box is nearly full of bees, you can remove it and transfer a couple of the queen cells to another box and start a second trap hive.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

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Offline G3farms

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2011, 12:12:58 am »
eggs are sometimes hard to see. You need to get the sun at your back and shining into the cells, you will have to turn the frame just right and you can see eggs pretty good. If you are wearing a veil that will make it harder to see also. One of my veils is a plastic mesh and I can not see eggs through it but my cheaper folding veil that has metal screen on it I can see eggs pretty good. Some keeps use the magnifying reading glasses to see them .
those hot bees will have you steppin and a fetchin like your heads on fire and your keister is a catchin!!!

Bees will be bees and do as they please!

Offline Tommyt

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2011, 08:46:25 am »
Quote
and the cone was covered up as well. 
Watch that, keep it clear on the inside
I've had them jam it up and kill thousands to a clogged cone
Good Luck
I started one Yesterday and will start another today

Tommyt
"Not everything found on the internet is accurate"
Abraham Lincoln

Offline ziffabeek

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2011, 09:30:45 am »
Good luck Mike!  Glad that you are putting the great education we received to use so soon!

Please keep us posted with your progress and success!  How fun!

How are your other bees doing with the smoke?  I hope the danger has passed.

love,
ziffa

Offline VolunteerK9

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #6 on: April 21, 2011, 09:41:34 am »
Yeah martin, keep us informed. Im setting up my first trapout this weekend and more than a little nervous about it.

Offline vmmartin

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #7 on: April 21, 2011, 08:03:44 pm »
Quick update.  The bees were on the front of the box because there was for room for them inside.  When I placed the 8 frame box up as the catch box I put the frame of bees and hopeful eggs in with an empty frame of drawn comb and the rest foundation. The brood has hatched and that frame and the empty frame are both completely full of nectar.  NO Queen cells except for an old swarm cell that I did not close.  The bees were extremely angry off! This was the first real test I put the Golden Bee jacket through and I did not get one sting.  I am thinking that I need to replace foundation with empty drawn comb and try another frame with bees and eggs.  The drawn comb so that they can continue to fill and the eggs to give them another chance.  Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

Offline iddee

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #8 on: April 21, 2011, 08:37:07 pm »
If all the brood has hatched in 5 days, you didn't even have open larva, much less eggs. Get someone to look for you and find 2 frames with eggs. Remove the catch box and put 1 frame in it and the other in the new catch box. You don't want to leave a box too small to hold the bees that have came out. They will abscond.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline vmmartin

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #9 on: April 24, 2011, 12:07:29 am »
Iddee, thanks for the advice.  I went and looked into my hive that I removed the frame from for the catch box last week and there are literally hundreds of drones.  Much much more than I have seen in my other ones so maybe that queen is drying up or wearing out?  I came across two queen cells and a just emerged virgin queen from a migratory beek in town here today.  Here is what I did. Hopefully, it was not a mistake. I removed the first catch box that is full of bees and placed the virgin on the top bars. Some bees immediately started like feeding her and others were crawling all over her.  I have never done or seen this before so I am not sure what I was looking at. Therefore, I also placed one of the queen cells in this hive also, just in case they were attacking here or something.  Placed the other queen cell in the new catch box with 1 frame of bees and nectar from the original catch box and they started checking out the cell and after I put the lid an they all started fanning and going in.  Looked pretty normal.  Still lots of bees coming out of the cone.

Offline iddee

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #10 on: April 24, 2011, 12:26:59 am »
Sounds like you got it under control.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline REDBEE

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2011, 12:18:31 pm »
Hey Mike you sound like you know your stuff,a real beeman,just do what you think is right and it will work out. Bruce

Offline vmmartin

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #12 on: April 25, 2011, 11:17:26 pm »
Thanks for the vote of confidence Bruce but I am a long way from "knowing my stuff".....just ask my wife.  I met a guy at lunch today that knows you.  He had a Sue Bee hat on and I asked if he was a beek and he said yes.  He is down here from SD and his name was Bob ________? He said that he knew you. Hope yall are doing well in this drought.

Offline vmmartin

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #13 on: May 10, 2011, 12:31:08 am »
Good news.  Checked both boxes Friday.  First box did accept either the virgin queen or the queen cell and I have a mated queen running loose in there.  Actuall think I saw some eggs.  The second box did have an empty queen cup but I did not find her nor did I see any evidence of her.  However, I think I might have been a couple days early on looking for larvae.  All in all, the trapout seems to progessing well.

Offline VolunteerK9

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #14 on: May 10, 2011, 12:36:24 pm »
I checked on mine last Sunday 5/1 and saw at least two capped q-cells. (Probably more but I didnt that hard after seeing the two) Going back today to see how things are going with it.

Got another call yesterday from my 911 center. It was a swarm that took up residence in a hollow tree and the owner wants them gone. Trap out #2 starts this weekend.

Offline BBees

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #15 on: May 11, 2011, 08:35:16 am »
Can someone explain how these trapped out foragers are able to raise queen cells from the frame of eggs we use in trap outs? I thought they were too old to make royal jelly. Knowing me, I probably missed something but if someone would be so kind to explain this, I'd appreciate it. Sorry, just coming from reading how to raise queen cells and the importance of young nurse bees to get the job done.

Thanks,
Steve
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Offline VolunteerK9

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #16 on: May 11, 2011, 09:16:14 am »
Hey Martin...I checked on my trapout yesterday. I found the Queen!!!! Whoo hoo! A big ole plump golden colored one.

Iddee if you are following this post-I watched the cone for about 10-15 minutes and only observed 1 single bee leave the cone while I was there. I set the trapout on April 24. Do you think its safe to remove the cone to start the robbing of the honey in the wall? Or should I let it set for a little while longer to let my new queen to get established then remove the cone?

Offline vmmartin

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #17 on: May 11, 2011, 09:57:00 am »
K9. I was wondering the same thing.  I set mine on 4-16-11 and it looks like they might have already absconded out of the tree.  I thought about removing cone as well.  Then I thought, " I spent way too much time and silicone to take it off too early"  I had a very large hole in the tree to seal off.  The home owner did tell me that he saw alot of bees around the cone last week but was not sure if they were leaving or hanging around. Isn't it cool to see a plan come together? I mean like you planned it too?

Offline ziffabeek

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #18 on: May 11, 2011, 09:58:13 am »
BB - I am a newbie and not an expert, but  I think that 2 things happen here.  One, I read that older bees can revert to raising a queen (providing royal jelly) when needed, and also that in a trap out, when the nectar stops coming in (no foragers returning) the queen will stop laying due to lack of resources and teh nurse bees will eventually leave the hive as well since there is no brood, so they will then start raising anything they find in the box they are all moving into.

At least I think that's how it works.  Hopefully one of the experts will chime in and correct me or elaborate. :)

love,
ziffa

Offline vmmartin

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Re: Eggs for a trapout
« Reply #19 on: May 11, 2011, 10:09:36 am »
Hey BB. Here is my .02  I see alot of similarities between bees and people.  Alot of stark differences as well.  They are pissy when the weather sucks, they are very aggressive when somebody has been trying to take something that they worked their ever loving a$$es off to collect, the males are mainly concerned about themselves and chasing girls :shock:, and those in the same family will die in defense of their clan. :-x Even though they may go through different job duties in their short life, survival is of paramount importance.  Being that they are extreme survivalists, the older bees will fer sure go back to baby bottles and changing diapers if needed. (another similarity to humans if you just look around at our society) Oops, sorry for the soap box mount. :-\. Besides them reverting back to an older job could just be the same job they were doing a week ago.