How late is considered too late (in the year), on average, for cut-outs?

[GDRankin]

I read the feedback on Sarah's post - Good/Bad Time of year for a trap-out?
 http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,45116.0.html
  . . . which all makes sense based on the time it takes for all parts of the process to complete.

However, I'm wondering what folks consider "too late" for cut-outs - more so in terms of how much time is needed to recover based on the resources are available in a given area, rather than the actual time of year, since we all have a different calendar time that ol' man winter comes a knocking.

I have a customer in central/south Texas that wants to postpone a cut-out until after October. I told him that will be too late in the year, but he has his reasons so I'm debating whether I should urge him to do it now or wait until spring?

What's a good amount of time for a colony to recover and build up from a cut-out? Obviously there are many variables, so I'm just wondering what an average would be for late season cut-outs and if anyone has approximate cut off dates they tend to follow?

Thanks,
GD

[iddee]

90 days.

[divemaster1963]

Lots of variables involved avg temps what flowering in your area and for how long. Here in middle Ga. .I have done cutouts as late as Oct. When temps were staying high. Cool nights I helped by wrapping the hive will feeding in top box to help them along. My best hive I did this with when I had to remove the from a complex. The hive now is four years old with the original qween.

John

[GDRankin]

90 days.

Thanks Iddee, that's a bit longer than I would have guessed, but when you break it down into what all takes place and then what happens in the rebuilding process . . . that makes sense.

My best hive I did this with when I had to remove the from a complex. The hive now is four years old with the original qween.

Wow, that's cool and a good deal older than I normally hear of for sure.

[Michael Bush]

A month and a half ago was pushing it, but if you had drawn comb and could steal a few resources to get them through the winter it might work.  That's here in Nebraska... Two months ago would have been better.  Six months ago would have been the best...

[GDRankin]

Thanks for the feedback Michael,

Luckily, we've been getting some long overdue rain the last several days. So the girls are actually bringing in a good deal of pollen this week. I'm not sure what all is blooming, but we seem to be moving out of the dog days of summer . . . finally.  We've been extra hot and dry down here for the last couple of months, so I've been feeding to get the hives through the dry spell. Hopefully the weather man will be at least partly correct in his prediction of more rain on the way.

Since this is my first year of doing the cut-outs/removals, I wasn't sure just how much later in the year would be practical to continue. I did combine a couple of the smaller colonies to help rebuild their numbers faster and hopefully build up enough stores for the winter. Currently I feel pretty good about all of the hives I have brought in to our bee yard so far, even though I've been supplementing them to some degree.

I'm far enough south to be considered "Zone 9" (avg annual lows 30* - 20*) by the plant folks, so we typically have pretty short and mild winters. However, we do occasionally get down in the teens and even lower once in a while.
So now I have to decide what will be best for any bees that I get calls about removing this late in the year. Many of the calls I've received so far are from customers that want to "save the bees" and report being thrilled to find someone to relocate them vs calling an exterminator. And most are wanting/needing the bees gone "asap" for one reason or another. Others, however, are calling me after the exterminators fail to do the job and they still have bee issues.

With that said, any new colonies I do get calls about and decide to remove (because the customer just can't wait and it's either me or the exterminator), I'll just have to plan on doing what I can to help them through the cold months.

If anyone has any pointers in terms of what to do and / or what NOT to do, I'd be most appreciative. I purchased some pollen patty protein supplements from Mann Lake a week or so ago because a recent removal was total void of any stores or brood. They had a little honey around the edges, but that was it. Totally dry comb otherwise.  This was a first for me to see so far, but again, we've been in a pretty hard drought down here this summer.
I started them on sugar syrup right away and added a small piece of the patty yesterday. I did notice a little brood and fresh eggs when I opened the hive, so that was a good sign. Now we have a much better amount of pollen coming in from the recent rains, so hopefully they can start building up their stores.

With that said, I'm guessing I'll need to continue to supplement that hive for a good while longer, maybe even all winter?

I have about 15 hives in all and I bought enough patties for all of them, should I need to use them once this current pollen flurry ends. I was warned that the patties could harbor small hive beetles. So that's something I'll need to watch for if I need to start supplementing more hives I suppose.

Sorry for rambling on . . . just trying to provide more info so anyone with feedback will have more to go on ;)

Thanks,
GD

[JP]

The late ones often go into nucleus set ups but I've done them here in southeast Louisiana as late as January during a warm up period

One I did two Thanksgivings ago is still thriving

Course we don't get much of a winter


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