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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 Today at 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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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Trap deadout/abscond
« Last post by beesnweeds on April 19, 2024, 06:26:51 pm »
Any other theories out there?
When you catch a swarm its best to hive the bees as soon as possible and start feeding.  The photo of the little piece of comb tells me they didnt have full honey stomachs and probably a smaller secondary swarm with a virgin queen.  If the queen doesnt make it back from a mating flight the population will crash, some of the bees may have made their way back to the original colony or just starved. 
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Hi Folks,

Trailer rolled in at 0256.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/428594386540310/?s=group_other&__cft__[0]=AZXJklC8dbV-cTP0TVou9z4Wav-d9zD3AxI7NGbmBTDkXZHxpIhrNipblXipXYbIXBxg-HBJpMTc7nU-LnwDQHR8cEa2P0mahIwKX8Lz68xQcJJlGz4ygGciZsOKYLVwZLcR9fFOOcQlSLbfVoEM8KzGWleHQSXM3TNq19K8HjrnYpcYqnaMDqrkgs5myNyl60B3yH2trbGbtfo8Qk0dP-pyNzfaM2VRJxjeoXJZHSTPXQ&__tn__=H-R

Usually, it takes about 45 minutes for us to unload and broom clean the trailer. Today about 35 minutes. I think the trailer holds a few less than 1,000 packages, all strapped in, amazingly. Nothing moves, all boxes connected to each other. HVAC. Lotta heat generated by these bees. We'll keep them cool and ventilated for pick-up Saturday (tomorrow) from 8 AM to maybe 1 PM.

We have a lot of members, 700+. And about 80 new Bee School people. They have first crack at packages.

https://www.facebook.com/100094078868185/videos/1225153115530503/

https://www.facebook.com/100094078868185/videos/1093425265076427/

Sal
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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
At 0154? God bless you.
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I really miss the lack our friend OldBeavo posting. Has anyone heard from him? I hope all is well for him. He has contributed much here at Beemaster. He is the only migratory Beekeeper I know of from Australia which regularly post here.  🤷🏻‍♂️
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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Permethrin drench for SHB
« Last post by Ben Framed on April 19, 2024, 07:37:41 am »
Beetle Jails are a good monitor for SHB's and will catch them if they hive is invaded.
Need to change baits every 2 or 3 weeks, not as messy as other  systems. Also fi into  migratory bee keeping systems

OldBeavo if you read this I would like to ask what it is you use for bait? Thanks Phillip
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