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Author Topic: Tornado Hit My Place Last Night  (Read 4965 times)

Offline Rebel Rose Apiary

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Re: Tornado Hit My Place Last Night
« Reply #20 on: June 29, 2009, 08:27:28 pm »
Irwin,

I said that I had tow strikes already....if I lose anymore, I am out for this year.
If things are good with the fall flow, I might get enough honey for myself, the bees to over winter on and some to donate to the food bank. The food bank honey is something that I do every year and they really appreciate the honey.

Brenda

Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: Tornado Hit My Place Last Night
« Reply #21 on: June 30, 2009, 02:22:04 am »
After all the condolences it's time for some constructive help.  It may be too late now but in case it isn't and for future reference be aware that when wind storms knock over hives and scatter frames the bees are very confused.  That confusion lets the beekeeper put the hives back together, any-witch-way and those that recover do and those that don't don't. 

If the brood frames are water logged they're toast so it's best to just cut out the combs and replace the foundation, if that is what you use. 
Mainly concentrate on the live bees and stores, getting those into hives with any brood frames that don't look too damaged.  The bees will clean up some brood but a hive full of bad brood can be too much for the bees to overcome without putrification setting in, causing disease.
It's possible to end up with more than 1 queen in a hive, no queen to a hive, or having lost all the queens.  A few days can tell the difference.
Don't worry about hive numbers, concentrate on placing 10 frames in each 10 frame box, 2 deeps, or 3 mediums to each hive, and then see how they recover.

That's the best a beekeeper can do, the rest of the season will be spent nursemaiding those hives that show survival tendencies to a state tha might allow them to successfully overwinter.  Sorry for the disaster, but it's now time to get to work.
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Offline Rebel Rose Apiary

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Re: Tornado Hit My Place Last Night
« Reply #22 on: June 30, 2009, 01:54:20 pm »
Brian,

Thank you so much for the information. I guess I accidently did what you suggested....I put what I could salvage where I hoped/thought it went and most of the brood and honey was ruined.

Some of the frames had half a frame or more of undamaged brood, so I put them with with the good brood. The frames of honey looked too bad to me to put back in....wet, sandy and covered in weeds...plus the tree limbs beat the heck out of them and ruined most of the foundation....most look like King Kong used them for a trampoline.

You have set my mind at ease, as I was not sure how to handle this one. I had thought about combining the hives and making one out of two....but I am going to wait a week and see what they look like then.

I have been looking for the queens and so far, not one has been found. I think that I will look inside to see if I can either find the queens or if there have been any new eggs laid.

I have been feeding my hives since the storm and they are going right through the SW. There is not much blooming here right now, other than some wild daisies; the yellow ones that have the big black seed head something like a coneflower...I cannot remember the name.

Brenda


Offline Kathyp

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Re: Tornado Hit My Place Last Night
« Reply #23 on: June 30, 2009, 02:07:11 pm »
sorry about your mess.  that just sucks.  please keep us posted on the recovery. 

they are tough little critters so hopefully they will end up in better shape than it probably looks they will right now.
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Offline Rebel Rose Apiary

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Re: Tornado Hit My Place Last Night
« Reply #24 on: June 30, 2009, 04:33:55 pm »
All I can say now is that they are hungry and taking up the SW like crazy!

There is not much here for pollen and nectar....I cannot find anything more than the daisies! I fed all of the pollen patties early this spring, so I cannot fed them any now.

Brenda