Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: RHBee on March 15, 2013, 11:20:49 pm
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Today, after I finished building and painting enough equipment to support splits, I decided to do an inspection of my 4 largest colonies. First, I recruited some help. My wife suited up and joined in on the fun. We were pushed for time and had to move as fast as we could because it was about 1:00pm when I finished painting every thing. What we found was double deeps bursting with drones and at least 5 swarm cells per hive. They were all pissy and wanted to be left alone. No choice but to do splits now, I have to work 12hr shifts for the next 5 days. From those hives I was able to create 4 large splits and 2 nucs. With the populations being that large we was only able to find one queen. She went into one of the nucs. From that same colony I created two splits of 8 deep frames with swarm cells in each. The other nuc was built from the one colony with three frames with swarm cells. All the other boxes have 1 frame with swarm cells. I didn't bother cutting cells because I had no more equipment built. I had no idea that I could have made at least 10 nucs. I made my self a promise that I won't get caught in this predicament again. All of the splits are packed and all have a medium super of partially drawn frames. I also put two medium frames in the supers of last years honey from the freezer. It was about 9:00pm when we got every thing cleaned up, stands built and everyone in a permanent location. I'm keeping all 10 splits in the backyard for now until I make sure that they all have a laying queen then they will be moved to better foraging.
I would like to thank all of you that helped me out with this by either PM's or posts. You can't know how good it feels to go through another milestone in beekeeping. I couldn't' have pulled this off without the information that you all contributed. The size of my yard doubled today thanks to everyone.
Now comes all the questions about Raising Queens. Just thought I'd throw that out there. :-D
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:yippiechick: :yippiechick: :beemaster: :th_thumbsupup: :th_thumbsupup:
John
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sounds like the foraging is pretty good right there ray. good thing you went through them. i should have asked about the clover earlier but i would have never guessed it was in up there.
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Way to go Ray. Best of luck to you and your bees
Joe
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HOORAY RAY!!
That is so happy! Sounds like everything went perfect!
Isn't it a great feeling! Such a good harbinger of spring!
love,
ziffa
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Glad you got your splits. Don't want to rain on your parade but be careful. Only add the comb the bees will cover in splits and keep them strong or you may have alot of unwanted visitors here in SC ----- SHB. Don't give them space to hide in, they will take a slpit down in short order if not careful. Been there done that :(
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Glad you got your splits. Don't want to rain on your parade but be careful. Only add the comb the bees will cover in splits and keep them strong or you may have alot of unwanted visitors here in SC ----- SHB. Don't give them space to hide in, they will take a slpit down in short order if not careful. Been there done that :(
I appreciate the heads up. I got that t-shirt last year. I have the larger splits on hive stand combination oil traps. I hate SHB. It's the weaker nuc I'm worried about. I only have them on SBB. I got to build traps my next days off. I was able to reduce the entrances for the nucs that's about it. I'll keep close eye on them. BTW, during the inspections I saw no SHB. I don't think they're active yet.
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Looking at my hives yesterday I had one hive with hundreds. All had more adults hive beetle than I have ever seen this time of year. I am holding my breath...........................
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Looking at my hives yesterday I had one hive with hundreds. All had more adults hive beetle than I have ever seen this time of year. I am holding my breath...........................
Sorry to hear that. Looks like fun time is over. I spent all year fighting those things. Thanks for the heads up.
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Way to go Ray!!!!!! X:X X:X X:X X:X X:X
Lets me know what I may be up against next year. That will be my second year. Need to make sure I have enough equipment on hand so I will be ready.
David
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sc, that sounds bad. i had a hive with quite a few going into winter but i had three beetle blasters in the hive and i went through it today and saw a couple of beetles and a lot of dead ones in the traps.