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Author Topic: Help please  (Read 5281 times)

Offline achunter

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Help please
« on: June 13, 2009, 02:54:36 pm »
Hello Everyone,
My one hive was very very strong and i inspected it today and i saw two capped swarm cells on the bottom of one of the deep frames, so I took that frame with the two swarm cells and put it into another deep hive body along with 3 other frames of bees and capped brood. Do you think this hive will have a chance at getting through the winter or do you think it is to late to make that split and I should kill the swarm cells and put the frames back in??
Thanks

Offline Big Steve

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Re: Help please
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2009, 03:21:12 pm »
Start feeding it like crazy you should be all right your post does not say where you live.  I live in S. Idaho and swarm season just got over last week.  I wish I could get me hives to lay some queen cells so I could do just what you are doing.  Steve
Lovin Life in Idaho Still land of the free and home of the redneck.

Offline achunter

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Re: Help please
« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2009, 04:02:09 pm »
sorry I live 45 minutes north of Harrisburg PA
« Last Edit: June 13, 2009, 04:46:56 pm by achunter »

Offline homer

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Re: Help please
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2009, 09:12:12 pm »
Hello Everyone,
My one hive was very very strong and i inspected it today and i saw two capped swarm cells on the bottom of one of the deep frames, so I took that frame with the two swarm cells and put it into another deep hive body along with 3 other frames of bees and capped brood. Do you think this hive will have a chance at getting through the winter or do you think it is to late to make that split and I should kill the swarm cells and put the frames back in??
Thanks

I don't think that you have anything to worry about.  There is TONS of time left in the season.  Destroying queen cells is never a good idea.  Since you took them out and put them in a nuc, did you find the queen in the other hive?  There is still a possibility that they will swarm even though you took the cells out.  In order to keep them from swarming you really need to remove the queen and a few frames of brood and place them in a nuc to simulate that the hive has swarmed.

I did just that about a month ago.  As there were swarm cells on a few different frames I took one of the frames and placed it in a nuc and got a new queen out of that one, then the nuc that I put the queen into did great and the hive never did swarm.  Worked perfectly, though there is no guarantee that it will work that way every time.  The season is really just getting into full swing where you are at... don't fret... just keep after it, doing what works for you and your hive will do just fine.

Offline Highlandsfreedom

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Re: Help please
« Reply #4 on: June 13, 2009, 09:15:17 pm »
Hello Everyone,
My one hive was very very strong and i inspected it today and i saw two capped swarm cells on the bottom of one of the deep frames, so I took that frame with the two swarm cells and put it into another deep hive body along with 3 other frames of bees and capped brood. Do you think this hive will have a chance at getting through the winter or do you think it is to late to make that split and I should kill the swarm cells and put the frames back in??
Thanks

I don't think that you have anything to worry about.  There is TONS of time left in the season.  Destroying queen cells is never a good idea.  Since you took them out and put them in a nuc, did you find the queen in the other hive?  There is still a possibility that they will swarm even though you took the cells out.  In order to keep them from swarming you really need to remove the queen and a few frames of brood and place them in a nuc to simulate that the hive has swarmed.I did just that about a month ago.  As there were swarm cells on a few different frames I took one of the frames and placed it in a nuc and got a new queen out of that one, then the nuc that I put the queen into did great and the hive never did swarm.  Worked perfectly, though there is no guarantee that it will work that way every time.  The season is really just getting into full swing where you are at... don't fret... just keep after it, doing what works for you and your hive will do just fine.





So I need to take the queen and brood frame to sim. a swarm that makes total sence thanks........
To bee or not to bee that is the question I wake up to answer that every morning...

Offline achunter

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Re: Help please
« Reply #5 on: June 14, 2009, 12:04:17 pm »
some one recommended that i should switch the positions of the hives, put the new starter hive in the position of the strong colony and move the strong colony down the row, there in boosting the starter hives number up by allowing all the field bees to move into the new starter colony. good idea or no?

Offline homer

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Re: Help please
« Reply #6 on: June 14, 2009, 12:11:09 pm »
some one recommended that i should switch the positions of the hives, put the new starter hive in the position of the strong colony and move the strong colony down the row, there in boosting the starter hives number up by allowing all the field bees to move into the new starter colony. good idea or no?

I don't see that it would hurt anything, but I don't know that it's going to make a huge difference in the long run.  The most important thing is to get a queen working in the hive so that it can build up strong that way. 

If you are worried about bee numbers in the hive then you can do just that, or just add another frame or two fo capped brood from another hive and that should do the same thing.

Offline homer

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Re: Help please
« Reply #7 on: June 14, 2009, 12:13:10 pm »
I live in S. Idaho and swarm season just got over last week. 

What is the defining sign that swarm season ended last week for you?  I'm in Northern Utah and I'd say that we're still right in the middle of swarm season, and I don't think that I could accurately say a specific week that it would come to an end.

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Help please
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2009, 03:52:09 pm »
If there are only two cells, I doubt they are swarm cells, no matter where they are.
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
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Offline achunter

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Re: Help please
« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2009, 05:43:21 pm »
alright so say they were superseedur cells, will this mess up the hive i took them out of??

Offline homer

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Re: Help please
« Reply #10 on: June 14, 2009, 06:14:47 pm »
alright so say they were superseedur cells, will this mess up the hive i took them out of??

If they have already nixed the queen then it will render that hive queenless.

Offline achunter

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Re: Help please
« Reply #11 on: June 14, 2009, 06:32:59 pm »
so if the hive is queenless a hive that strong will just make more supercedure cells correct??

Offline Highlandsfreedom

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Re: Help please
« Reply #12 on: June 14, 2009, 08:43:47 pm »
If they have the right stages of larva they will...........  I think :-D
To bee or not to bee that is the question I wake up to answer that every morning...

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Help please
« Reply #13 on: June 14, 2009, 09:09:27 pm »
>alright so say they were superseedur cells, will this mess up the hive i took them out of??

Yes.  It will interrupt the process of replacing a failing queen.  If she has already failed, which is quite possible, then they will likely end up queenless.
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
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Offline homer

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Re: Help please
« Reply #14 on: June 14, 2009, 11:05:38 pm »
so if the hive is queenless a hive that strong will just make more supercedure cells correct??
They can't make new cells if there isn't a queen in there laying eggs for them to use. 

No queen + no eggs + removing queen cells = queenless hive.

Offline achunter

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Re: Help please
« Reply #15 on: June 15, 2009, 12:00:37 am »
well the day of inspection when i noted the 2 queen cells there were lots of eggs present

Offline Natalie

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Re: Help please
« Reply #16 on: June 15, 2009, 10:11:02 am »

I have kind of a similar situation here where there were eggs along with the queen cells.
 I had one capped queen cell in a hive that I just started from a nuc 3 weeks ago.
During the time it was there I was still seeing eggs, I checked the hive yesterday and the bottom of the queen cell was opened and I saw eggs in the comb.
I didn't see the queen but didn't really look for her either since I saw eggs I figured the hive was good to go.
The last time I checked the hive was 7 days before yesterday's inspection and the queen cell was still intact.
Yesterday it was opened and I saw eggs.
I am wondering if they tore down the cell or if she was superceded.
How long would it have taken for the new queen to mate?


Offline achunter

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Re: Help please
« Reply #17 on: June 15, 2009, 05:27:31 pm »
just another question, i looked at the starter colony today and it seemsed to have lots of activity, i have a feed bag on it do you think there being robbed?? i have an entrance reducer on also so only 1 bees can go in and out at a time

Offline annette

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Re: Help please
« Reply #18 on: June 15, 2009, 05:47:29 pm »
Is there tumbling of bees going on?? When they are being robbed, you see bees tumbling together on the landing board.