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Author Topic: Now how long did you say that they have been there?  (Read 8195 times)

Offline Pete

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Re: Now how long did you say that they have been there?
« Reply #20 on: September 19, 2010, 08:51:16 am »
Hard to see from the pics, is the box big enough to fit them? I found when transferring a hive on Sat that they all stayed on the outside or more than a day. I had frames of brood in there and empty frames and i figured they were all just sorted out their new home. Tonight they are all in there and look to be pretty happy (from the outside). Maybe for a bigger colony this process takes longer, esp if they have more bees than room?

Offline philinacoma

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Re: Now how long did you say that they have been there?
« Reply #21 on: September 19, 2010, 09:05:20 pm »
I went back there yesterday with plan V. The Vac.

I closed up the hive box and moved that out of the way. There were still thousands camped on the bung wall. So they got the suck. The collection worked well. There was just enough pull on the bees to dislodge them wall any less and they would not have moved. It took around 2 hours to collect them all. I packed up and transferred them directly over to their new home. I opened the lid of the vac's collection box and was disappointed to see the mortality rate was around 50%.  :'( Time for some modifications to the bee vac!

I smoked and opened the lid of the hive box and found that there was good number of bees in the box.  :)

I emptied the bulk of the vac bees into the hive box and closed the lid. The ones that did not want to shift as easily ended up on the ground in front of the box. There was a considerable amount of bees trying to get in through the vents when I had to leave so I am hoping that the queen is in there somewhere and is OK. After they have had a week or so to settle in, it will be time to open up and see how they are. The bees seem pretty hot so I want time for the queen to settle in and get laying. I am still a little concerned over the heat of these bees for a just started beginner and I am going to help monitor them for a while to see if they need re-queening.

Hopefully this is the end of this cutout saga as it has taken up a good amount of my time that could have been used to collect some nice easy swarms! They are so easy in comparison.