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Author Topic: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles  (Read 5079 times)

Offline rober

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moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« on: August 05, 2013, 11:32:17 am »
i have some hives at another beeyard where the bees are not doing very well for whatever reasons. the beetles are thriving though. they're not sliming the hives 'yet' but their populations are strong. do i need to worry about my other hives if i bring these beetle ridden hives home? i do have beetles here but not nearly so many.

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #1 on: August 05, 2013, 01:16:13 pm »
i have some hives at another beeyard where the bees are not doing very well for whatever reasons. the beetles are thriving though. they're not sliming the hives 'yet' but their populations are strong. do i need to worry about my other hives if i bring these beetle ridden hives home? i do have beetles here but not nearly so many.

Rober,
Are the hives where you are going to in the son and maybe the other ones are in the shade. this alone makes a big difference. I have the same situation, my house in town has lots of shade and at the farm all son. In previous years when I took them to the farm the SHB populations decreased to almost none. The full son makes a big difference. It also helps with the bees being able to cap the honey sooner.
Because I and another beek in the area in town use SBB with OIL traps, we have seriously dropped the beetle population here in town. Neither one of us are using oil in them this year. we just clean them out every week to kill the dropped larvae that can live and grow in the dropped pollen.
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
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Offline rober

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #2 on: August 05, 2013, 01:38:09 pm »
the hives with heavy beetle populations are in the shade til 1:00 pm & full sun the rest of the day. my home yard has full morning sun, shade from 11:00 am til about 3:00 pm, & then full sun again which i think is ideal. they get full sun all day in the winter. i'm looking for another location because with 6 hives at home i'm pushing it as far as potential problems with neighbors. i'll install some oil traps for a couple weeks before i move those 2 hives. i have some beetle barn traps & cd cases baited with butter spray & combat ( fripinol ) around the hives but not in the hives. there are quite few dead beetles in those. i did have an empty super on top of those hives inner covers with a 2nd inner cover with the beetle barns on top of the 2nd inner cover. it was a good hidy hole for the beetles but when i read up on fripinol it says that it's not a quick kill allowing ants ( or beetles ) to return to their nests & contaminate the nest. so i discontinued that since i did not want contaminated beetles returning to the frames & contaminating them.

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2013, 12:08:34 am »
Jeff,
That is a lot more sun light than I have on my hives here in town. My best recommendation is to get oil trays and get rid of the problem. Not only do they kill the beetles but also kill all of their young. I have tried a lot of different traps. Most are not worth the time and trouble.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline rober

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2013, 12:12:03 am »
i've got a freeman trap ( oil tray ) but it kills as more bees than beetles. i think i'll try it again but with a piece of screen on it to keep the bees out.

Offline sc-bee

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #5 on: August 06, 2013, 01:57:52 am »
do i need to worry about my other hives if i bring these beetle ridden hives home? i do have beetles here but not nearly so many.

I see no one wants to commit  :-D
John 3:16

Offline 10framer

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #6 on: August 06, 2013, 09:19:30 am »
the hives with heavy beetle populations are in the shade til 1:00 pm & full sun the rest of the day. my home yard has full morning sun, shade from 11:00 am til about 3:00 pm, & then full sun again which i think is ideal. they get full sun all day in the winter. i'm looking for another location because with 6 hives at home i'm pushing it as far as potential problems with neighbors. i'll install some oil traps for a couple weeks before i move those 2 hives. i have some beetle barn traps & cd cases baited with butter spray & combat ( fripinol ) around the hives but not in the hives. there are quite few dead beetles in those. i did have an empty super on top of those hives inner covers with a 2nd inner cover with the beetle barns on top of the 2nd inner cover. it was a good hidy hole for the beetles

 but when i read up on fripinol it says that it's not a quick kill allowing ants ( or beetles ) to return to their nests & contaminate the nest. so i discontinued that since i did not want contaminated beetles returning to the frames & contaminating them.
glad to hear you say that.  you are dumping pesticides into your brood chamber when you put combat in your hive.  i really believe that all the pesticides used to kill beetles and mites are a big part of colony collapse disorder.


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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #7 on: August 06, 2013, 01:01:22 pm »
I've got a freeman trap ( oil tray ) but it kills as more bees than beetles. i think I'll try it again but with a piece of screen on it to keep the bees out.

Rober,
I built and modified all of my SBB on a trial and error basis and you must make sure that the bees cannot get into the oil. I have a screen stapled to the bottom of the SBB right where the oil tray sits and the opening where the tray comes out has a board to keep them out, as a matter of fact it is attached to the oil pan to make it easier to pull the pan out.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline Jim134

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #8 on: August 06, 2013, 07:34:30 pm »
i've got a freeman trap ( oil tray ) but it kills as more bees than beetles. i think i'll try it again but with a piece of screen on it to keep the bees out.

Did not the trap come with a screen ???

http://www.eheartwood.com/images/products/Small/Trap.png and



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Offline RHBee

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #9 on: August 06, 2013, 07:54:15 pm »
do i need to worry about my other hives if i bring these beetle ridden hives home? i do have beetles here but not nearly so many.

I see no one wants to commit  :-D


Ok I'll step up. First some background. I started keeping bees last spring. I purchased two nucs, both had a healthy SHB population. I learned very quickly how to make these nasty critters die in large numbers. I found out later that there were other bee yards close by that had never had a problem with beetles. Well most of those colonies were overcome by SHB. Chance, fate, coincidence? I'll let you decide. I think my nucs brought the plague.
My advice,  get the population under control, move them into full sun, trap then relocate.
Later,
Ray

Offline rober

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #10 on: August 06, 2013, 09:52:10 pm »
that photo is of a screened bottom board with the freeman trap underneath. somehow the bees get under the screen & perish in the oil. i'm talking about laying a piece of screen directly on the tray to keep the bees out.

Offline RHBee

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #11 on: August 06, 2013, 10:48:04 pm »
that photo is of a screened bottom board with the freeman trap underneath. somehow the bees get under the screen & perish in the oil. i'm talking about laying a piece of screen directly on the tray to keep the bees out.

Could you post a picture or give a link to something close to what you have?  I have found that bees can fit into crevices that would surprise you.
Later,
Ray

Offline Jim134

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #12 on: August 07, 2013, 07:43:29 am »
This as the trap are you sure you do not have a knockout.  Did someone just putting
A tray in a piece of wood rim ???
http://freemanbeetletrap.com/build_it_yourself
you do know that draw goes to the back of the hive ???
I see one thing missing it is not tell you what size hardware cloth to use. :roll:



                      BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may  remember,involve me and I'll understand"
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"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways."
 John F. Kennedy
Franklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/

Offline rober

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #13 on: August 07, 2013, 11:06:37 am »
my freeman tray came with a kelly sbb. it's a tight fit but the bees get into the tray & are killed by the oil.

Offline RHBee

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #14 on: August 07, 2013, 03:15:23 pm »
If the tray isn't completely sealed the bees want in. I had a gap at the rear they got in. I had a flaw in my screen, they got in. I didn't think to seal the bottom front of the pan, they got in. My point is that you almost have to watch and consider all possibilities. I don't know why they search for any opening but they do.
Later,
Ray

Offline rober

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #15 on: August 07, 2013, 03:36:35 pm »
the front of the pan slides into a groove. they cannot get in that way. i even taped the back but they still get in!? on the kelly sbb the screen is an insert that slides into a groove. since the bees propolise the screen i do not see the point of the removable screen. so-a 2nd screen laying directly on top of the tray would seem to be the easiest fix.

Offline RHBee

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Re: moving hives & bees & small hive beetles
« Reply #16 on: August 07, 2013, 04:40:34 pm »
the front of the pan slides into a groove. they cannot get in that way. i even taped the back but they still get in!? on the kelly sbb the screen is an insert that slides into a groove. since the bees propolise the screen i do not see the point of the removable screen. so-a 2nd screen laying directly on top of the tray would seem to be the easiest fix.

You know in the end it is just what works. Where are the majority of the dead bees located in the tray?
Later,
Ray

 

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