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51

GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by The15thMember on April 20, 2024, 08:18:12 pm »

I checked the swarm that I managed to recover from my "Swarm Out of Reach" saga.  There was only about 3 frames of bees in there, so I compressed them down to 1 box.  I didn't see a queen, but the bees were acting so normal that I'm wondering if I just missed a virgin.  Or the babies made them stick, in spite of not having a queen.  I gave them a frame of BIAS from another hive to give them a population boost and allow them to make a queen if they need to.  As far as established hives, I split one, removed the queen from another, and added my pollen trap to a third.  There are a lot of queen cups being made, but I didn't see any actual queen cells.  I undersupered 2 of the hives to give some more room in the brood nest.  Still no significant drawing, and I can see from my notes that at this point last year drawing had absolutely commenced.   

52

GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Trap deadout/abscond

« Last post by Ben Framed on April 20, 2024, 04:18:56 pm »

Thanks Jim, Beesnweeds laid out a very good theory of what might have happened to Occams' bees and I tend to agree, without more information...

Occam did you happen to take more pictures of what you found?

Phillip

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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

54

GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by cao on April 20, 2024, 12:12:12 pm »

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.

55

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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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by Terri Yaki on April 20, 2024, 08:20:10 am »

That sounds like you got a lot of work done there, congratulations. How many hives do you have?

58

GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by cao on April 20, 2024, 01:36:33 am »

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

60

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