Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => DOWN UNDER BEEKEEPING => Topic started by: philinacoma on August 16, 2010, 03:28:45 am

Title: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on August 16, 2010, 03:28:45 am
Here are tho photos from the latest call to perform a cutout. The bees are nested on the right hand side of the chimney in the last picture. The house is due to be demolished in a fortnight's time so if we want it it's a next weekend job.
Looking down the chimney the nest appears to be about 3 feet down. We could not see how far down the comb extends. We decided not to stick our heads into the opening as the guards were getting a bit edgey.

The roof is a bit risky due to height and slope (those live power cables we climbed over to get to the chimney should be disconnected this week), but alternative access is through the brickwork on the first floor (second floor for those of you on the other side of the pond) which should bring us in just below the comb (depending on how far down it extends).

So Ozbuzz, it'll be a bit of work, are you up for it?

Assuming that we open up the chimney and we are just below the comb, I was thinking that we take the whole nest in one piece (if possible) and dump it straight into a box and worry about putting it into frames at a later time once it has been relocated. What do you, or anyone else, think?

The weather is mostly cold at the moment (winter but improving!) with the occasional warm day. Which is why I want to disrupt the bees as little as possible.

(http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/8651/sam0111.th.jpg) (http://img811.imageshack.us/i/sam0111.jpg/)

(http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/4091/sam0112.th.jpg) (http://img46.imageshack.us/i/sam0112.jpg/)

(http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/6571/sam0113pg.th.jpg) (http://img62.imageshack.us/i/sam0113pg.jpg/)

(http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/3785/sam0114v.th.jpg) (http://img205.imageshack.us/i/sam0114v.jpg/)




Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: OzBuzz on August 16, 2010, 10:59:48 pm
We're talking about partly demolishing a house! am i up for it! bring it on hahaha.

Is Saturday good for you? I'm busy sunday...early start?

I've got those secondhand boxes that i mentioned:

1 X Deep with four old frames and four plastic drawn frames
2 X mediums with fully drawn comb

I also have another deep box but don't have any frames to go in it...

I can chop the comb out of the medium frames (albeit i'd sooner use full depth frames but it's what i have laying around)
It all looks a bit old and manky so anything i take away will be going in an isolation yard away from my main hives - plus we don't know what the colony might have. When i inspected that back bungalow there was a cupboard loaded with dead bees. It looks like a pest controller might have been in there but i'm not 100% certain - if not then something caused them to die en-mass. 
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: OzBuzz on August 17, 2010, 02:58:10 am
I might even have a shot at making up a couple of plywood 5 frame nucleus Five Frame Plywood Nucleus (http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,27006.msg212166.html#msg212166) and get hold of some new frames for them... I've just gotten hold of a heap of 12mm plywood here at work for free
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on August 17, 2010, 04:48:41 am
Bring it all along. We will probably need to make it up as we go depending on what we find when we punch the hole in the chimney.
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: OzBuzz on August 17, 2010, 05:08:34 am
Will do... Do you have any empty frames?
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: Geoff on August 17, 2010, 08:27:29 am
        Where abouts is it that you fellows will be having fun on Saturday? Dont know how I will be situated then but will give thought to watching the fun and games and offer a spare pair of hands if needed.
        Good to see you blokes keeping the Down Under forum alive.
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on August 17, 2010, 10:22:24 am
Good to see atleast one of the old crowd is still with us!

The nest is in Eaglemont (near Heidelberg). I tell you though, I'm a bit annoyed with Julia calling an election on cut-out day. It really makes the logistics of voting when I need to be at the site early a bit of a challenge.

I'm not sure if I have any frames Buzz, will need to scrounge around.
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: OzBuzz on August 17, 2010, 11:39:43 am
Can the owner leave the key somewhere? I can get there early and atleast take the plaster off until you get there.... I'm going to try and make up five or six nucs and see if I can get new frames for them on friday
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on August 23, 2010, 12:51:44 am
Hi All,

These are the pics from the weekend's fun filled cut out. The comb (black too) was at least 2m high possibly as much as 3m. We didn't go down any further than you can see in the pics as there didn't seem much activity in the bottom part. Didn't see the queen but OzBuzz had ordered one from KI just in case. The job took us about 5 hours and we had to pull down the ceiling and push off some tiles to get good access. We grabbed all the brood we could find, which wasn't much, and some stores of honey.

(http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/9485/sam0117.th.jpg) (http://img835.imageshack.us/i/sam0117.jpg/)

(http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/707/sam0118.th.jpg) (http://img822.imageshack.us/i/sam0118.jpg/)

(http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/213/sam0119.th.jpg) (http://img163.imageshack.us/i/sam0119.jpg/)

(http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/3096/sam0120.th.jpg) (http://img835.imageshack.us/i/sam0120.jpg/)

(http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6978/sam0121.th.jpg) (http://img338.imageshack.us/i/sam0121.jpg/)

(http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7482/sam0122.th.jpg) (http://img59.imageshack.us/i/sam0122.jpg/)

(http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/7682/sam0123a.th.jpg) (http://img409.imageshack.us/i/sam0123a.jpg/)

(http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/9006/sam0124d.th.jpg) (http://img716.imageshack.us/i/sam0124d.jpg/)




Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: JP on August 23, 2010, 09:43:04 am
Now that was quite the undertaking! Let us know how they do and if you did in fact get the queen. By the looks of it the original colony had established itself a very long time ago.

Bet y'all were glad it was a house being demolished instead of one inhabited, that would have made things even more interesting, at least for the home owners!


...JP
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: hardwood on August 23, 2010, 10:04:44 am
Looks like that was a rough one for sure! I hate having to go through masonry. Great job you two!

Scott
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: AllenF on August 23, 2010, 04:26:32 pm
Goodness, what a mess.  Did you have fun at it? :-D
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on August 23, 2010, 08:17:27 pm
Thanks guys. Yes, we had fun. It's comming towards the end of winter here and we are both hanging out to get back into the active part of keeping and chasing swarms. The chance of collecting a feral hive was just too good to pass up.  :-D

It certainly beat the many calls I've had over the last couple of months only to find when I got there that it was a wasp nest.
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on August 23, 2010, 10:37:40 pm
Another week another call! Going to have a look at another one this lunch time not far from work.  :)

Come spring, I reckon I'm going to be flat out. 8-)
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on August 24, 2010, 12:38:09 am
More Winter fun!

(http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/3687/sam0125.th.jpg) (http://img163.imageshack.us/i/sam0125.jpg/)

(http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/5897/sam0126a.th.jpg) (http://img832.imageshack.us/i/sam0126a.jpg/)

No bricks to remove here. First time I have ever seen them camped directly on the ground. I wonder if they are inside that pot too?
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on August 25, 2010, 08:10:10 pm
Hey OzBuzz,

How are the new girls? I don't expect you to have opened them up yet, but is there much activity? I know it has been cold the last couple of days, are they collecting pollen if they are going out?

Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: OzBuzz on August 26, 2010, 08:55:05 am
G'day mate, I did go in, super quickly, for a manual release of the queen on Monday. She quickly raced down between the frames with the bees feeding and cleaning her-release a success! When I was combining the two boxes on Sunday (I put all the honey we found plus some empty comb to fill up most of the space) I noticed tgey had filled about half a frame with nectar in one day... They have also been bringing in pollen. I haven't put a feeder in yet-I'm hoping they can make us of the warmer patches to forage plus the honey I put in there. I haven't had a chance to make another hive body or divider board yet so I can feed them in the hive. I just hope the new queen has gone to work laying and that they're making new comb. Sunday and Monday are supposed to be 18 & 19oC which will be good for them as there are lots of flowers in bloom around here including wattle
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on August 26, 2010, 10:25:23 pm
If you get some time, can you check something for me in regards to wattle trees. I had heard that there is next to no nectar in them and the pollen is protein poor so that the bees leave them alone. I had a walk around this morning doing some bee spotting while I waited for a couple of tyres to be fixed and I only found one wattle. I could not see any bees at all the tree. There were bees in the area because I could see them on plum, almond and magnolia trees.

On another note someone in the beekeepers club collected their first swarm of the season on the weekend! - Bring it on baby!!! :)
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: Pete on August 26, 2010, 10:53:32 pm
I have 7 or 8 wattles, Cootamundra and a variety and my neighbours all have a few and they aren't popular with bees here.

Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: Geoff on August 26, 2010, 11:29:08 pm
We have different species of wattle this way Phil and I have never seen a bee on them.
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: Meadlover on August 26, 2010, 11:43:45 pm
I am going to try and check out some wattle this weekend to see if the bees are on it.
I checked out 1 tree at work this week and there were no bees, and the flower seemed really dry, so maybe the huge amount of wattle in flower here at the moment wont really provide much for the bees?

I caught my 1st swarm for the season nearly 3 weeks ago here in Brisbane.
I really need to get some nucs or old boxes prepared incase I get more calls!

Nice work on the cutout too guys.
With comb that dark it must have been a really old hive!

ML
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on August 27, 2010, 12:54:09 am

I caught my 1st swarm for the season nearly 3 weeks ago here in Brisbane.
I really need to get some nucs or old boxes prepared incase I get more calls!


Yeah, I saw you mention that earlier. My comment was more for the benefit for those of us down here in the cold.  :'(
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: Culley on August 27, 2010, 06:10:39 am
Here in Northern NSW the bees go for the Acacia decurrens, but the bloom of each tree does not last long.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_decurrens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_decurrens)
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: OzBuzz on August 29, 2010, 08:35:23 pm
It was definitely a challenging cut out - aespecially my first ever one - but it was a great experience! I haven't had a look at the colony since last week but when i was last there they had already bought in good supplies of nectar to supplement the honey that i had put in there for stores. The Queen was released, and accepted, so as i see the weather warming up i'm hoping that she will start laying and hopefully the colony will produce some comb to tie in all of the cutout combs. I just hope they keep it neat and don't make too much mess! They're forecasting 18oC today and 17oC tomorrow so that will give them ample opportunity to do plenty of foraging... I just wish that the longer spells of warm weather would hurry up! it reverts back to 14oC on Wednesday with showers through to Saturday  :-\


Hi All,

These are the pics from the weekend's fun filled cut out. The comb (black too) was at least 2m high possibly as much as 3m. We didn't go down any further than you can see in the pics as there didn't seem much activity in the bottom part. Didn't see the queen but OzBuzz had ordered one from KI just in case. The job took us about 5 hours and we had to pull down the ceiling and push off some tiles to get good access. We grabbed all the brood we could find, which wasn't much, and some stores of honey.

(http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/9485/sam0117.th.jpg) (http://img835.imageshack.us/i/sam0117.jpg/)

(http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/707/sam0118.th.jpg) (http://img822.imageshack.us/i/sam0118.jpg/)

(http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/213/sam0119.th.jpg) (http://img163.imageshack.us/i/sam0119.jpg/)

(http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/3096/sam0120.th.jpg) (http://img835.imageshack.us/i/sam0120.jpg/)

(http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6978/sam0121.th.jpg) (http://img338.imageshack.us/i/sam0121.jpg/)

(http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7482/sam0122.th.jpg) (http://img59.imageshack.us/i/sam0122.jpg/)

(http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/7682/sam0123a.th.jpg) (http://img409.imageshack.us/i/sam0123a.jpg/)

(http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/9006/sam0124d.th.jpg) (http://img716.imageshack.us/i/sam0124d.jpg/)





Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on August 29, 2010, 09:14:13 pm
Here in Northern NSW the bees go for the Acacia decurrens, but the bloom of each tree does not last long.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_decurrens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_decurrens)

@Cullz Are the bees foraging on any other plants around there at the moment or is this 'the best on offer' for them?
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: Culley on August 30, 2010, 04:58:03 am
That's the only wattle blooming here. I'd guess the others are not far off.

Tallow-wood, forest red gum, narrow leaf iron bark, avocado, citrus, liquid amber all flowering. Croftonweed is just starting to flower. Lots of other weeds flowering. The wattles and eucalypts don't seem to flower in unison, even ones of the same species.
So far have seen the bees get extra active for the wattle and our one liquid amber tree.

Nice cut out pics. I read this thread with interest. How did the colony on the ground go? The giant honeybee from Asia builds nests out in the open, and the small Asian honeybee does too.

I just went to the bee club here and 30min drive from me there are hardly any drones yet. Me and Meadlover have had swarms already. I just found the first eggs from a newly mated home grown queen.  :) Pretty awesome how the bees respond to the specific environmental conditions where they are.  :)
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on August 30, 2010, 10:53:43 am
I went there in my lunch break today. It was a warm sunny day (17C?) and it took me about an hour to set up, cut the comb and put into frames. There were not a lot of bees in the nest. I am hoping that they were mostly out foraging. I saw some capped and uncapped brood. I didn't see the queen but I did not want to leave the brood out too long so transfered it as quickly as possible. I needed 4 frames to hold the comb I cut out.

I went back after work and they had all moved into the box.  :) There were no girls hanging around the entrance, but I could hear them inside. They have now gone off to a new keep who has go the bug after fostering one of my hives for a couple of months.
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: OzBuzz on August 31, 2010, 10:03:46 pm
You're like the bee matchmaker! match colonies with appropriate homes hahah


I went there in my lunch break today. It was a warm sunny day (17C?) and it took me about an hour to set up, cut the comb and put into frames. There were not a lot of bees in the nest. I am hoping that they were mostly out foraging. I saw some capped and uncapped brood. I didn't see the queen but I did not want to leave the brood out too long so transfered it as quickly as possible. I needed 4 frames to hold the comb I cut out.

I went back after work and they had all moved into the box.  :) There were no girls hanging around the entrance, but I could hear them inside. They have now gone off to a new keep who has go the bug after fostering one of my hives for a couple of months.

Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on September 01, 2010, 12:01:12 am
You're like the bee matchmaker! match colonies with appropriate homes hahah

Wait till the swarms start comming in! Everyone will be my friend then.
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: OzBuzz on September 01, 2010, 12:20:09 am
Hahah i wish they would hurry up and start!
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: philinacoma on September 01, 2010, 02:21:33 am
B :shock: e carefull what you wish for!
Title: Re: Cut out
Post by: OzBuzz on September 02, 2010, 12:50:05 am
I could handle the problem of having to make more of those incredibly awesome nucleus hives! i can carry four at once in the car hahahha - although my wife gave me a mini ultimatum the other day about having to find another way to transport my bees! i don't think she like the idea of me trying to fit two doubles in the boot! and the fact that we had a few 'bee friends' in the car the next day after that cutout got her a little worried :) i think two or three must have gone back under the nucleus after i brushed them off on the saturday

B :shock: e carefull what you wish for!