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Author Topic: help for the newbie  (Read 8731 times)

Offline SlickMick

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #20 on: October 29, 2009, 02:24:54 am »
ok great advise, so before i get into this whole scenario this afternoon, can someone please double check my strategie, (ps, all of this is taking place within the same yard), im going to get my little 5 frame nuc and from my strongest hive im going to extract 1 frame full of bees and brood, and 1 frame full of bees and eggs/brood, and combine it with 2 frames of honey and one foundation frame. with my strong hive, i will then replace those taken frames with drawn comb frames from the super above it.

Sounds ok to me. I would even be tempted to shake in a frame or 2 of bees from the brood box to make sure there are plenty of bees to look after the brood and also to cover the frames fully

2 worrying questions for me:

a) will the bees from the frames of my strong hive return to their original hive or will they stay and protect the brood??? these hives are only 10 meteres apart

If they are nurse bees you should not have any problems

and (b) the 2 frames of honey in this nuc are old old frames wich may from the outside look ok but is it possible that these frames of honey are already full of shb larvae/eggs??? (because they have orginially come from the badly infected hive!!

thank you for your help everyone :P

If you freeze the frames of honey for 24 hours there will be no trace of live shb in them.

I hope that this helps

Mick

Offline sas_marine@hotmail.com

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #21 on: October 29, 2009, 03:26:06 am »
ok, after all the help and best management i cud do! the bees got completley robbed and left the colony, i killed the queen and just left the box turned up next to my strong hive, i checked my strong hive and even the lid in the honey super is full, so this hive is awesome!! 2 strong hives, 2 frames of honey  in the freezer, the rest on the fire! a moments silence for the dead.................i loved those guys,

anywayz all, i have 2 really strong hives on a reasonable honey flow, so all thats left to do is soak the ground in permethrin where i think larvae may have dug, keep an eye on these beetle traps and wait for some honey :P

fingers crossed all goes well :P and thanks eveyone for the help, amazing what you can learn in 2 days :P

Offline SlickMick

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #22 on: October 29, 2009, 03:33:59 am »
What a bummer that you lost that nuc. At least you still have 2 strong hives to work with and you can always do a split when the honey reserves build up.

Make sure that you continue to keep us all informed how things are going for you and your girls

Mick

Offline mathispollenators

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #23 on: October 29, 2009, 07:56:07 am »
You need to get that empty hive and frames out of there.  The hive now have nothing protecting it at all now.  What is going to happen now it they will migrate to the next one after they finish the one that's there.  There were thousands you claimed at first on that bottom board and I'm betting there are some that are already in the ground.  Keeping a clean bee yard is important so there are no empty hives and frames to attract more beetles.  Put them up so they can be used later instead of being beetle feed now which you don't want.

I'm not going to argue rather you should treat hive as I see lots of people feel other wise.  I also feel strongly this is an immunization type treatments. I have to do or I'm going to be out of business in a few years.  My dad would tell you he never had polio but has had the treatment to be protected from it. That would be his answer to the counter productive and treating for something you may not have issues. I have to have mine inspected in order to cross state lines and any thing we find I have to distory that hive.  If I let them just die out get full of diease and infect the rest of my hives I'm out a hive of bees and source of income.  Not just a source of pleasure I would spend a few hours a week playing with.  I don't mean to be uncivil on that but I have to protect my job because I can't do anything else than beekeeping.
Without Thomas Edison & Alexander Graham Bell we wouldn't have the graveyard shift or Telemarketers.  So how do you like them now?

Offline sas_marine@hotmail.com

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #24 on: October 29, 2009, 10:51:33 am »
yer, i soaked all of the ground in permethrin and disposed of all shb larvae in permethrin graves, i had 2 frames of honey, they are in the freezer and i will inspect them tomorow, and the other 3 frames have just finished burning. all boxes and shb traps were throuougly washed with bleach and then soaked in boiling water.. so the bee yard is super clean now, the bees that were from the dead out hive have slowly made their way into 1 of  my strong hives, so they will be ok, there was only about 300 bees and a queen, i crushed her, she was old and faulty anyways, i gues ill just split a nuc in a months time when the honey is flowing harder,, did i miss anything ? i think i have covered all angles, also anything that had even the slightest bit of wax on it got burned, ps, foundation, if its left exposed, does wax moth go for that ??? like in my shed ??

Offline Kathyp

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #25 on: October 29, 2009, 11:06:36 am »
they don't usually go for foundation.  i have found a few pieces in frames that they have started on, but it's not to their liking and they move on.

next thing to watch for is overcrowding and swarming.  if you have a hive that is so full it's building on the lid, you probably need to add another super for honey.   not sure i understood that correctly?  how full are your brood boxes?  you'll need to keep an eye on that and either split or add another box when they need it.

mathispollenators, i don't have a problem with treating.  sometimes it needs to be done.  if you are running a business you have different needs that have to be met.  for those of us who are backyarders, especially those of us trying to raise resistant stock, prophylactic treatment is counter-productive.

since this guys bees have been doing pretty well without care, he may have the start of some good survivor stock there.  if he does, and can avoid...for the most part....treating, it will save him money.  

the more people like us work on raising resistant bees, the more chance there is that people like you can one day have stock that will save you time, effort, and money.

my .02 worth  :-D
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline Joelel

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #26 on: October 29, 2009, 03:12:05 pm »
ok great advise, so before i get into this whole scenario this afternoon, can someone please double check my strategie, (ps, all of this is taking place within the same yard), im going to get my little 5 frame nuc and from my strongest hive im going to extract 1 frame full of bees and brood, and 1 frame full of bees and eggs/brood, and combine it with 2 frames of honey and one foundation frame. with my strong hive, i will then replace those taken frames with drawn comb frames from the super above it.

2 worrying questions for me:

a) will the bees from the frames of my strong hive return to their original hive or will they stay and protect the brood??? these hives are only 10 meteres apart
b) the 2 frames of honey in this nuc are old old frames wich may from the outside look ok but is it possible that these frames of honey are already full of shb larvae/eggs??? (because they have orginially come from the badly infected hive!!

thank you for your help everyone :P

If your nuc is full of bees I wouldn't take bees from your strong hive,i would shake most them off the frames of capped brood and eggs and honey.You don't want to crowd your nuc.The bees in the hive will take care of the brood and eggs.You can squeeze the honey from the frames and feed it to them in a feeder and replace the frames with empty frames,is what i would do.You need to feed them also for 2 months or more. You need to check them before winter to be sure they have enough store honey for the winter,you may need to feed them all winter.
Acts2:37: Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
38: Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
39: For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
40: And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation

Offline Kathyp

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #27 on: October 29, 2009, 03:19:26 pm »
he's in Australia.  it's spring.
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline Joelel

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #28 on: October 29, 2009, 05:36:09 pm »
Sorry to hear you lost it.
« Last Edit: October 29, 2009, 09:24:53 pm by Joelel »
Acts2:37: Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
38: Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
39: For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
40: And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation

Offline Joelel

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #29 on: October 29, 2009, 05:51:04 pm »
 :yippiechick:
« Last Edit: October 29, 2009, 09:28:01 pm by Joelel »
Acts2:37: Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
38: Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
39: For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
40: And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation

Offline Jack

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #30 on: October 29, 2009, 09:06:04 pm »
.....hard to ignore such a crude poster. just my two cents.

Offline SlickMick

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #31 on: October 29, 2009, 09:24:23 pm »
Where SAS lives is 2.5 hours drive north of me and where I live the girls fly all year round so wintering as you guys in the cold north of the US know it does not exist for either of us. I usually leave a few frames on the hive should the "winter" be colder than expected but otherwise it is all year round production, for example this year I was taking honey non stop but we did have a wetter summer that we have had for the past 6 or so. Where I live we have never had a frost although places around do frost and I imagine that parts of Maryborough where Sas lives do. It may be a little different for SAS depending on if he lives in  or out of the city (which I dont know). It does mean that the autumn decline is not severe and that swarming can occur late in the season with overcrowding. At this time of the year it is always an issue. Obviously things such as shb are wih us all year.

I hope that this gives you a better picture of our local conditions. How different they must be to yours.

Mick

Offline Sparky

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #32 on: October 29, 2009, 09:50:40 pm »
And I though that we were busy. Looks like you guys always have something to do with your bees. At least we get a bit of a break in our winter months. Tim.

Offline Lone

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #33 on: October 29, 2009, 11:11:26 pm »
Hello Sas,

Sorry you lost that colony, but now you are experienced in what to look for in the other hives and will be able to beat the shb before they beat you.  Those few bees will help build up the other hives too.  You have obviously researched well to find permethrin so quickly.  It's the only chemical we are permitted to use against shb.  Was it easy to find a supply, Sas?  Please let us know how well it works. 

As Mick says, it might make a difference whether you are in town with gardens everywhere, or out in the bush like me, basically waiting from one flowering gum to the next, or on crops, which you have to be a little careful about with the sprays.  But I would probably be hesitant to split yet.  We might be only a few weeks from the wet season, which is our hiatus.  It's not the same as overwintering in America, but they will need some strength and honey (or feeding) if we have another big wet season.   With the continuous rain we had early in the year they couldn't forage for weeks.  I would suggest holding off until next spring because that will give you more time to learn how to manage the hives you have and keep their strength up too, which will also help against the shb and wax moth.  It is good to have more than one hive I've found though, because as you've seen you can rob Peter to pay Paul.  If you have a lot of capped honey maybe you could extract some, leaving enough for the bees.  Splitting would mean you'd have to give that spare honey to the new colony.


Lone

Offline SlickMick

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #34 on: October 29, 2009, 11:59:26 pm »
Hi Lone, how are things going in NQ

Mick

Offline Lone

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #35 on: October 30, 2009, 08:11:24 am »
Good thanks Mick, how is Brissie?

Offline SlickMick

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #36 on: October 30, 2009, 08:26:19 am »
Brissy is going pretty well at the moment.. plenty of activity in the hives and some nice honey coming in. I caught a swarm a couple of months ago that filled 2 deeps and I have already taken a super off it :lol:. The others are going great guns also and I have a couple of shallow supers to take off over the next week.. getting too old to have to lug deeps full of honey around. Did you see that Beemaster has given us a forum for ourselves.. Aussies, Kiwis and Tasmanians :).. should bring a smile to the faces of our southern Tasmani..... er Aussies  :-D. Check out http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/board,157.0.html

Mick

Offline Lone

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #37 on: October 30, 2009, 09:06:13 am »
Things are a bit slower here, Mick.  The ironbark still has only a few flowers on it and about 5 bees on each flower.  They love it though - they were lifting off the lids of the buds to get to the flowers.  When I checked last week the hives were probably about 1/4-1/3 full. I get some help with the lugging when things need to be lugged.

I shall have to go to the aussie forum and plant the flag.  What's the password?

Lone

Offline SlickMick

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Re: help for the newbie
« Reply #38 on: October 30, 2009, 09:22:47 am »
Its part of this forum, Lone, so all you have to do is click on that link I posted :)

Mick

 

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