Video - 2 spitoons, a spray bottle and one big frilling hive

[Grandma_DOG]

Darn Big hive...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbbYnfnPiX0

Started the cutout yesterday. Ran outta time.
Filled up my big bee Vac.

[Robo]

WOW!   Thanks for sharing...

[Rebel Rose Apiary]

Pretty cool! Nice white comb!

Brenda

[jimmy]

What a hive, glad it's you and not me with that, Have fun.

[Highlandsfreedom]

Wow that looks like alot of fun..

[G3farms]

that's one big ol' honkin hive of bees for sure. That would be a real fun cut out, easy to get to and if you don't get finished today just close the door and come back tomorrow.


hahaha went from "in a sick way I hope they are in the wall" to "Ihope they are not in the wall". Sounds like they are almost going to over whelm you. Hang tough I know you can do it.

G3

[Grandma_DOG]

OMG, I have sad news.

I spent 6 hours cutting out the hive and putting brood in my TBH.  I used the Vac to suck up the bees, and before I started it again this morning I checked on all the bees from yesterday. They were fine. But yesterday we had an unusual cold day of only 94 F.  Today hit 103 F. I worked thru the high. 

When I got to the yard, almost all the bees were dead in a gooey mass.  Maybe 3% lived. I'm hoping its enough to make the colony viable, if SHB doent overwhelm it.

All I have for my work is $250, 3# of wax and maybe 50-60 lb of honey.

I put maybe 50,000 bees in the bee vac, which is huge if you've seen my other vid. I don't know if the heat got them, or if I sucked too many into the vac tube before dumping out?

[G3farms]

so what happened to them, get too hot in the vac?

that is sad after all that hard work. good luck with them.

G3

[JP]

Its very easy for bees to overheat and regurgitate this time of year, losses are much, much higher when temps are up like this.

Leave twice the room you normally would in cooler temps in your inner catch chambers, all you really can do other than vacuuming then placing them inside your house or truck with the ac going.

About the numbers, this time of year they seem to be endless. You vacuum and remove and then open a wall next to where you've been working and find 30,000 bees stashed away, hanging out. Its amazing where they come from, as if out of thin air.

That was a huge hive btw. Great job!


...JP

[beee farmer]

Wow! what a great call , no cutting, no tall laddars. no direct sun and a huge hive. Should have been enough brood to stuff one hive and let them raise new queens on a couple more... sorry ya had problems with the heat... do em long enough and it'll happen for sure.

[Grandma_DOG]

so what happened to them, get too hot in the vac?

that is sad after all that hard work. good luck with them.

G3

Sad does even cover it.  :( I had ideas of making a hive and 2 splits outta this.  When the girls dumped out the end as a mass of blackened goo, I felt like I had really screwed up and was deeply disappointed. This was my second beek disaster in 72 hours. I had a massive comb collapse in my best hive. Vid is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZfKBw3lHtw

 I had given a day of my life for that wet pile of blackened bees that plopped out of my vac. I was angry at myself, angry at my bee vac design, annoyed at how slow my cutouts go, and angry I gave up a day of work to do this cutout.  My Lang hives hadn't shown up yet, so I was still suffering doing the cutout into a KTBH, and I was hating the inherent design flaw of KTBH's being rotten for cutouts. Sad, well, doesn't cut it.

Hopefully, the brood was just about to hatch, several were popping out while I was cutting.  With lucky the 500 or so workers will make the hive viable, but chill brood will happen tonight to most of the hive, I'm guessing.  I did take enough brood for a nuc, and put bees in it from my strongest TBH to try to keep the genetic line. Any hive that can get that big in Texas heat is good genes. I also took one frame with eggs to my collapsed hive to hopefully requeen itself, basically threw them a bone.

[G3farms]

JP I guess that is a good thing about the type of vac you use, catch a box of bees and then you can remove them and place in a cooler area. I use a vac like robo's design and only run it when when needed.

G3

[Grandma_DOG]

Second half is up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj8TLrIg4cE

[Robo]

I use a vac like robo's design and only run it when when needed.

Heat was one of the issues I had with the box in an box design.   With my design, when running it is not a problem as you are circulating air.   If you are not going to run it for an extended time,  just slide of the top and they have plenty of ventilation.  Then just slide it in again to continue.

I put a couple of frames filled with water in the vac before starting on hot days.  Always keep your vac out of direct sun.

rob...