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71
GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Trap deadout/abscond
« Last post by BeeMaster2 on April 20, 2024, 03:17:08 pm »
Ben,
No I didn?t find any. There was a lot of trash especially lots of dry old pollen that was in the combs.
Jim Altmiller
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I came out of winter with about 45.  Lost about 10-12 over winter which is about normal for me.  I always seem to go into winter with several that I know won't make it.  If all the splits make it, I will be somewhere close to 100.  And it is still early.  I don't really want that many but when you have the chance and have capped queen cells on frames, it is hard not to split them.
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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Trap deadout/abscond
« Last post by Ben Framed on April 20, 2024, 11:39:23 am »
I found some interesting information on wax moths right here at Beemaster that may be helpful to someone.

https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=6855.msg40499#msg40499
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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Trap deadout/abscond
« Last post by Ben Framed on April 20, 2024, 10:01:17 am »
Wow wax moths start early in Florida!  Just another example of why location matters. Either that or I have been very lucky!
With all the damage and infestation Jim; Did you find the floor of this hive covered with dead bees?

Phillip







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That sounds like you got a lot of work done there, congratulations. How many hives do you have?
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Well yesterday I caught a swarm that I put in two 8 frame medium boxes because I thought one box wasn't big enough.  Then today I started inspecting the hives in that yard.  The first several hives I made some splits with eggs to let them make their own queen.  Then I ran into a hive that had open Queen cells.  Of course, they got spilt.  A couple hives later, I ran into a string of 4 hives that had capped queen cells.  I think one of them was the hive that through the swarm yesterday.  The other three were still packed wall to wall with bees.  So, a lot of splitting was done.  In the last hive I thought I heard some piping and when I got close to the bottom box, I found a queen cell that hatched.  It still had the lid attached, so there was a virgin running around there somewhere.  I had to stop early because I ran out of nuc boxes.  After all was done, I think I made 3 full box splits and a dozen or so nucs.  I need to get some more boxes ready in the morning so I can finish going through those hives in that yard.  I'm starting to run out of room to put all the splits.  A little over a week ago, I made over 30 splits in my home yard.  The bees started early this year and haven't slowed down yet.
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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Trap deadout/abscond
« Last post by Occam on April 20, 2024, 01:32:34 am »
OK, interesting, good to know.  I pulled all the frames out of the trap and ran my torch over all the moth cocoons and into any tight spots and corners then added a little fresh propolis rubbings. I'll put it back out soon.

Thanks for the input
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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Trap deadout/abscond
« Last post by BeeMaster2 on April 19, 2024, 11:13:27 pm »
Occam,
I just inspected a swarm trap that I had filled with old comb to see how it would work out. The wax moths moved in before the swarm and they had filled in most of the space between the top boards with moth cocoons. I left the bees in there for over a month. They started dropping Greater Max moth larvae  out the front door. By the time I got in the hive only the cocoons in really tight spots were still in the hive. I did find a lot of old wax the bees would not use that I replaced.
Jim Altmiller
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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Trap deadout/abscond
« Last post by Occam on April 19, 2024, 10:35:44 pm »
Thanks for that! Sounds like a reasonable theory, I appreciate it
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Hi Folks,

Sitting back, sitting here waiting on a call from the Wilbanks Apiary trailer.

My club has around 900 packages getting dropped off within the hour.

This is more fun than waiting til the last minute to file your taxes.

Funny, the average age of the members who show up for the unloading is around 67 yo. Canes, walkers knee braces,..... I'm getting too short to work inside the trailer! The feeble and the feeble minded.

Sitting back, sitting here waiting on a call.

Sal

Fantastic!
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