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Author Topic: Trapout questions  (Read 2352 times)

Offline contactme_11

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Trapout questions
« on: July 22, 2009, 06:15:26 pm »
Last week I started 2 very large trapouts from 2 trees. Cutting down the trees was out of the question so trapout it is. Everything appears to be going good at this point. bees are coming and going from the boxes and more are leaving the cones all the time. I expect to collect at least 6-8 mediums of bees between the 2. My questions are this:
Can I put caged queens right into the trapout boxes (on the stand) to give them at least a week headstart laying? I'm worried about them making their own queens this late.
If I do give them queens and then I need to change boxes, will introducing a new caged queen right away in a new box lead to trouble? Thanks, pics to come later...

Offline iddee

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Re: Trapout questions
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2009, 09:01:49 pm »
You are on your own with that one, unless someone else has tried it. I haven't. I did use a queenright swarm consisting of about 1 1/2 frames of bees, and that worked out fine. It was the second trap box, tho, after I had removed the first box of 7 deeps full of the older foragers.
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Offline Robo

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Re: Trapout questions
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2009, 10:16:04 pm »
Can I put caged queens right into the trapout boxes (on the stand) to give them at least a week headstart laying? I'm worried about them making their own queens this late.
I have done that a handful of times without issue,  just let them release her.
Quote
If I do give them queens and then I need to change boxes, will introducing a new caged queen right away in a new box lead to trouble? Thanks, pics to come later...

Why change the whole box?  I usually just remove the full frames and replace with empty comb, leaving 2 or so and the queen.  If your looking to make multiple hives out of it,  than I don't see why it wouldn't work, just let them release her.  Or better yet, pull frames of brood with nurse bees and make a nuc to introduce your new queen in and leave the original queen with all the field bees.

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