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Author Topic: Queen in trapout bait hive?  (Read 3432 times)

Offline gardeningfireman

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Queen in trapout bait hive?
« on: August 01, 2012, 04:57:05 pm »
I need to start a new trapout tomorrow in a block commercial building. The bait hive will go on the roof, as the colony entrance is under the flashing. Normally the bait hive gets a frame with eggs. I happen to have an extra queen at the moment and was wondering if it would work to put her in the bait hive instead of just eggs? I hate opening my hives looking for eggs to take for a trapout!

Offline iddee

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Re: Queen in trapout bait hive?
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2012, 05:25:07 pm »
I would cage her, with attendants and food, as in a normal install for 3 or 4 days, then all should be fine.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

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Offline AllenF

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Re: Queen in trapout bait hive?
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2012, 05:27:55 pm »
I used a small couple frame nuc once on a trap out with a laying queen.   Dropped them into a 10 frame deep with drawn frames.  Worked fine.  They had 20 frames filled in just a couple weeks. 

Offline Evan W

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Re: Queen in trapout bait hive?
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2012, 10:15:40 pm »
I had the same idea about using a queen as bait to lure out another queen. I just cut down a bee tree and reassembled it at my bee yard. It would be too difficult to tear it apart so I will just let them over winter in the tree, there is plenty of room for expansion of their hive. I want to keep their feral genetics but without getting the queen out of the tree that is kinda difficult so I thought I could use the queens instinct to kill other queens against her. After winter if she hasn't moved up into the hive body I placed on top of the tree I may just try this.

Offline AllenF

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Re: Queen in trapout bait hive?
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2012, 10:28:27 pm »
That won't work.   A queen leaving the hive will take the last of the bees left behind in the old hive and leave in a small swarm.  She will not enter a full trap hive booming with new population.  She is looking for a new home.   You have to catch the swarm or catch the queen in the funnel which is rare and hard to do most of the time. 

Offline Evan W

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Re: Queen in trapout bait hive?
« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2012, 10:50:07 pm »
My method would involve a re queening cage and not another hive. I guess we are really talking about two different topics.

I have heard iddee say that if you do a trap out and starve the bees inside that the queen will eventually come out to the trap box. Please correct me if I am misspeaking, something to look into tho.

Offline AllenF

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Re: Queen in trapout bait hive?
« Reply #6 on: August 01, 2012, 11:21:24 pm »
In the trap out, you use a frame of eggs and brood to draw the returning foragers who can not get back into the funnel into staying in your trap hive.   From that frame, they make their own queen.   By the time the old queen leaves, the trap hive is in full swing and booming as a hive. 

Offline iddee

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Re: Queen in trapout bait hive?
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2012, 09:13:57 am »
"""when a trap out runs out of stores, the queen and the
remaining bees will abscond. The majority of the time she will pass
the catch box and land on a bush in the area. From there, it is like a
swarm. If you find her in time, they can be hived. If not, they follow
the scouts."""
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline MTWIBadger

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Re: Queen in trapout bait hive?
« Reply #8 on: August 06, 2012, 02:07:21 am »
Evan
If you want to trap the queen out of a bee tree, one possible way is to set a super with a frame of uncapped brood up against the entrance without any bees covering the brood.  I use a metal collar secured to the tree and push a super with a hole in the back up against the metal collar. The bees have to go through the super to exit/enter. I was able to trap a queen out of a big old cottonwood earlier this year.  I opened up the super after a week and she was laying in it. The bee tree raised another queen and is thriving again. The super on top of your bee tree may also work.

 

anything