OK, here's the interesting part. It's been a really fun several days with the bees. I've gotten calls for swarms and cut outs and we even started two trap outs from oak trees on Monday.
I went to a woman's house that I mentor this evening to help her untangle a foundationless hive that she hadn't touched in about 6mos. The hive was a total mess and had recently swarmed...I'm thinking within the last day or so. It was full of queen cells, some ripe, some which had emerged, and no sign of the queen. I took cells and what brood there was and pulled two splits off it giving each 4-5 cells. I also took away one nice cell and caught an emerging virgin and caged her. I put the cell in a cage as well and put them both in with the swarm from today hoping they will be safe. I'll transfer the swarm to an out yard in the morning and will see if the trap out(s) will take the cell and virgin. I hate to give the trap out(s) frames of open brood as the SHB have destroyed them when I tried this in the past.
I've only introduced virgins to a hive a couple of times...with success, but am a little worried about introducing one to a broodless trap out. We'll just have to see how this one pans out.
Scott
