I need to make an update post on cut outs I have been doing both good and bad. I am way behind.
I have 8 hives in my yard now. 6 in other yards. These numbers will change. Because some of the cut outs will make it some won't. I have been pulling alternating frames and making nucs because of the need to prevent swarming.
I have reached several conclusions as to how I will handle some of my future beekeeping.
1. I still have a few deeps in a couple of my hives. They need to go. They are just to darn heavy. I have said this before. I stopped rotating but those guys are going to get replaced.
2. Unless I am doing rape fields or something similar there will be no more than 5 mediums in a colony. I will try to keep it around four. The mediums are much lighter but I have some hives right now that are going to turn me into a bee haver vs a bee keeper. Going through that many bodies and frames even 2-3 times a year is a lot of work and I haven't highered any help. Nor am I going to. Also it is getting impossible to find the queen even with Michael's techniques. And even if the queen is marked. The big problem for me is I have two queens that cause me to beam with pride and grief at the same time. They can easy lay 3 mediums no problem. So I add another and these queens are like "Is that all you got?" It is nice but when 6 out of 10 frames are brood you are pulling the the outside frames for honey. I don't like doing that. I tend to leave brood bodies with their own honey supplies. But these queens make lots of brood not a lot of honey.
I am sure you all sympathize with my plight and feel my pain. Try not to throw things at your computer.
3. I am going to have to work out a deal with my wife on the number of cut outs I do. I can do a cut out everyday right now. But I have a real job and I travel a lot for that. So when I come home I do cut outs. My wife sees me with hives in my hand covered in honey and exhausted. She is tapping her foot on the issue of the number of hives in my yard and the lack of quality time. I am currently 4 weeks back logged on cut outs. Conclusion the wife is going to get more time. I actually like spending time with mine.
4. Michael's technique on dealing with a hot hive works great.The only problem is I don't have enough room to do all those splits and keep them far enough apart. However I can split them and put branches in front and force a reorientation with less than 150' distance between them. Also I can pull frames similar to the checkerboarding Michael also talks about. I will pull five frames from a body and put them in a nuc. If I can determine they have no queen in the nuc I will add one. I can let them form their own but I am worried about diploid / haploid issue due to not enough varied genetics. This also draws me to one other conclusion that Michael may not have pointed out. The level of aggression in a hive is directly proportional to the size of the hive. This means for me a larger hive could be more aggressive but a smaller hive will almost always be less aggressive. I have learned this applies to cut outs also. I believe the number of bees is the factor in this. Even if the hive is AHB if it doesn't have hundreds of bees to send out you are not likely to have a real aggressive hive. While AHB are not a problem in a swarm state and they throw off smaller swarms, it isn't untill they have a home to defend that it becomes an issue. Cutting down the amount of brood they create cuts down their numbers. Seems like pretty simple conclusion to me.
5. Pulling frames and doing cut outs has lead to this problem. I am running out of supplies. I have every nuc box I have filled.(I have 4 four). I have around 50 medium bodies filled give or take a few deeps. I have some permacomb still left but I only have about 10 frames left.
I have more mediums to put together from an order I received. Conclusion lack of supplies is no fun. Which leads me to my next problem.
6. As with problem 3 I still have to assemble bodies, make tops and put together other items. I have made my own mediums but the problem is time. The job needs me (and I need and like it). The wife needs me (and I need and like love the wife). The bees need me (and I like the bees). I lay out a pretty good schedule for my days but with my job so much can change on a moments notice, that a schedule sometimes is impossible to stick to. I prioritize things but when servers go down time is a precious item. Conclusion pacing and planning doesn't always work<---- I knew this before.
Still with me here or are you just throwing things now. I am sure you are all filled with grief over my issues. The next one will help even more.
7. I am running out of places to store my honey and wax. I have comb that is rotting because I can't melt it fast enough. Don't even ask the wife about the freezer. I am doing a little over 2 gallons of honey for every 10 frames. I have a bunch of jars but they are filled. So I need more jars. Now for the biggie. I am also running around so much that I haven't had time to sell as much of my honey as I would like to which means I still have to recoup my costs. I don't expect honey and wax to recoup 100% but it helps. Also the honey seems to make people very happy(and I don't even put prozac in it). Conclusion, listening to people talk about keeping honey in 55 gallon drums no longer seems so silly to me. However that is way heavier than a medium.
Now while I am sure you are all looking at this and going to bad for him. These problems for me suck. Because I want to do the right things, be with my wife, keep my customers happy and help save people from the evil bees(other people's terms not mine). Even with getting help from my beekeepers association and we are all finding ourselves spread thin.
Anybody want to come down here and help with a cut out?
Sincerley,
Brendhan
PS. last issue and conclusion. I passed the 2000 post mark. Conclusion, maybe I spend to much time here. ;)
I usually am switching between this window and my bid forms. So I can post while working, we can that mulititasking. ;)
Topic: Observations and changes for me. (Read 3731 times)