Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Jesse Sammons on May 07, 2008, 11:45:54 am

Title: when should i take out the reducer?
Post by: Jesse Sammons on May 07, 2008, 11:45:54 am: ok its been 2 days since I hived my bees. I can see bees trucking in pollen but sometimes they have to wait to get in cus of all the traffic at the door. Iam thinking its a good sign they are gathering pollen and takeing it back to the hive and that this means "home sweet home". So is it to soon to take out the reducer? My reducer is the small wooden kind with a very small hole. Should I maybe cut it in half. Also I have yet to release the queen, maybe they have but I have not been into the hive to find this out Yet!

jesse
Title: Re: when should i take out the reducer?
Post by: derrick1p1 on May 07, 2008, 01:09:54 pm: I usually wait to remove the reducer when the hive in question is "strong", or at least as strong as the other hives in the yard (assuming you have more than one hive). The idea being that the reducer will assist keeping intruders out and less entrance for the weaker hive to defend.
Title: Re: when should i take out the reducer?
Post by: Jesse Sammons on May 07, 2008, 02:31:26 pm: i only have two hives they are more than 100 yards apart and around the holler: [noun] hollow (in the mountains) aka small valley. So I thank it will be ok i took it out by the way. Just out of the one hive the other is still in cus they got some shade. The hive i took it out of they were fanning like crazy and I don't like being hot so ***** it. They'll make it/ but i have seen a big black snake in the area. any worries ? I don't think they will eat bees. I don't want to kill it cus they eat copper heads and rattlers. Soo.... I don't know.. Have to wait and see if it was a bad move.
Title: Re: when should i take out the reducer?
Post by: doak on May 07, 2008, 02:53:07 pm: Need to polish your language.
doak
Title: Re: when should i take out the reducer?
Post by: eivindm on May 07, 2008, 05:33:06 pm: I beeped away an inappropriate word. Please remember that this is a family friendly forum and leave out foul language.
Title: Re: when should i take out the reducer?
Post by: beemaster on May 07, 2008, 05:54:27 pm: JESSE:

One more cuss word out of your mouth and you are gone from this forum - if you don't understand "family friendly" then pack your bags and find somewhere that allows such language, it is NOT allowed here!

THERE ARE NO MORE WARNINGS, enjoy the forum, but watch your mouth.
Title: Re: when should i take out the reducer?
Post by: Sean Kelly on May 07, 2008, 06:50:21 pm: I usually take mine off when the queen start's layin and there's some capped brood. At this point they're pretty well established. Just watch the enterance too. If they're starting to get bottlenecked, then take it off.

Sean Kelly
Title: Re: when should i take out the reducer?
Post by: Moonshae on May 07, 2008, 09:40:41 pm: Remember that the population from a new package will drop to about half within three weeks. There may be a jam now, but with half as many bees in a couple weeks, will it still be that way?
Title: Re: when should i take out the reducer?
Post by: Jesse Sammons on May 07, 2008, 09:50:10 pm: LIVE FREE OR DIE!
Title: Re: when should i take out the reducer?
Post by: Scadsobees on May 08, 2008, 09:45:55 am: LOL!
Live free and bye!!!

Take the excluders out, just keep an eye out for robbing. Don't sweat the snakes, the hive can afford a few bees.