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Author Topic: Smallest colony in the world?  (Read 5185 times)

Offline Luckyparrot

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Smallest colony in the world?
« on: May 10, 2009, 02:45:03 am »
 I hope I'll abled to upload some pictures from the hive that I had tried to capture with the vac.  If you can see from the picture, the total number of bees is about the size of a chicken egg, which I estimated about a hundred. JP, please tell us how to bolster the population of the bees.
 Andy   

« Last Edit: May 10, 2009, 09:45:33 pm by Robo »

Offline Luckyparrot

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2009, 02:47:23 am »
Guys, please tell me how to post pictures!

Offline patook

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2009, 03:56:11 am »
Use a phot service like photobucket. With only a few posts though, an admin will have to approve the photos.

Offline JP

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2009, 09:51:03 am »
Lucky, you need to either shake bees in with them or do a combine, could also give them a couple of frames of brood from a strong colony.

Do some searching on here about combining colonies and boosting numbers.

Sorry if I wasn't very specific, I have to go work my bees soon.


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Offline Robo

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2009, 11:00:52 am »
Guys, please tell me how to post pictures!

Follow the instructions in the error message.   Basically forward the links to the images to photos@beemaster.com and a moderator will post them rather quickly.   Once you are an established member,  you will have full rights to post links and photos directly.
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Offline Luckyparrot

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2009, 09:24:54 pm »
Thanks, Guys !
 I have sent the pictures. Hopefully Beemaster will post them soon.

Offline Robo

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #6 on: May 11, 2009, 02:40:34 pm »
Not exactly sure what your doing,  but you just can't suck up some bees and call it a colony.  You need to get the queen and have considerable more bees for the to survive.   You need to get into the stucture and cut out the combs and aget the queen, brood, comb, honey and a majority of the bees if you want to make a hive out of it.
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Offline Luckyparrot

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #7 on: May 12, 2009, 02:18:19 am »
 Robo, I was so lucky that I was abled to suck the queen out. May be there are more than one queen in the hive, but I know this one is the queen because she looks like a queen and acts like a queen because wherever she goes, the rest follow.   

Offline Robo

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #8 on: May 12, 2009, 08:40:14 am »
So there are no more bees still in there?   I don't believe you have enough bees to constitute a critical mass for the colony to survive.   IS the queen laying?
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Offline Bee Happy

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #9 on: May 12, 2009, 10:01:44 am »
I may be foolish in bringing this up but - had the foragers returned to the hive? it may be a much bigger colony with the field force included.
be happy and make others happy.

Offline Luckyparrot

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #10 on: May 13, 2009, 02:50:23 am »
Robo, I don't know if the queen is laying. How do I find out? Yes, they are many bees inside that hive, but I'm not allowed to cut open because the owner said the house is historical. Bee Happy, I only see the bees leaving the box, but rarely returned. I have tried vac more bees and put them in with the queen inside the hive that I built, but most of them will return to their old hive, leaving the queen and few of her loyal followers. The old hive is dripping honey out beccause I had sticked my hand in there, trying to pull stuffs out of it. Oh, I put the box close to the old hive, with the hope that after bees finished eating the honey they will go inside the box with the queen.   

Offline Robo

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #11 on: May 13, 2009, 08:41:01 am »
Robo, I don't know if the queen is laying. How do I find out?

You should see eggs in the comb.

Sounds like you should do a trap out if you can't open up the house.   I have trapped out of some very old victorian style houses that had such intricate woodwork that would cost a fortunate to replace if it was damaged.

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,20301.0.html
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Offline Luckyparrot

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #12 on: May 16, 2009, 12:08:37 pm »
 Robo,
 With such a tiny population, the workers managed to built a little white comb, but the queen lays no eggs in it. Yesterday, she went outside the box, and the rest of the bees were also went out with her. I had to put her back into the box.  What should I do with this queen?

Offline Cindi

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #13 on: May 17, 2009, 11:30:05 am »
Wonder if LuckyParrot has a virgin queen that is wanting to head out on the nuptual flight.  Let's get some more comments here, beautiful days in our great lives.  Cindi
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Offline G3farms

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #14 on: May 17, 2009, 12:47:45 pm »
Are there bees still going and coming from the house?

As much as this might be a historical house, it looks like the boards are pretty rotten and need to be replaced anyway. I would ask if a cut out was possible if you did a little repair work to seal up the hole (nail a board back in place of the rotten board) .

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Offline JP

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #15 on: May 17, 2009, 07:15:48 pm »
Lucky, this is my best advice to you right now, try and find an experienced bee remover to assist you on this job. Even if you have to pay him/her, you could get the job done and do some valuable learning in the process.

There are too many variables here to go back and forth about this one and too much information will undoubtedly be lost in the shuffle.

If you have no one in your area that can help you perhaps we can get together in ventrillo to sort things out.

I do wish you the best of luck on this one.


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Offline Luckyparrot

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Re: Smallest colony in the world?
« Reply #16 on: May 19, 2009, 02:05:41 am »
Cindi was right. That bee was a virgin queen, who was so unlucky that she was being sucked into the vac. Anyway, she never liked the box that I built her, and yesterday she left for good. Wherever she'd gone, I hope she'll make it, for she does'nt that many helpers to help her. Today the owner of the house finally let me cut the house open. After about three hours of looking for the true queen, my neck was so tired from looking up, I , out  of desperation, grabbed  a whole brunch of bees in my hand. And Behold, the queen was among many bees ! She was fat and beautiful queen. As soon as I put her in the box( the same box the the virgin queen didn' t like), most of the colony followed her, but there were quite alot of bees still clinging to the old hive, which was dripping with honey and the night was already dark. So I decided to leave the box at that place for the night, hoping tomorrow the rest of the bees will go into their new home. Guys, I did buy some beekeeping supplies. I got only three stings today !

 

anything