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Author Topic: Going, going, gone!  (Read 4683 times)

Offline FloridaGardener

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Going, going, gone!
« on: June 07, 2020, 10:33:24 am »
I bid low on this, it was close to home and looked easy.  Went smoothly...








I patched those neat little discs sequentially into frames with rubber bands and toothpicks...Perfect order, perfectly straight little nest. 

But I was short on one important element in the new hive setup -
A queen excluder under the hive body. 

  :embarassed:
THAT is not going to happen again. 

Was chatting with another beek, same thing happened when he hived a caught swarm.  Misery loves company, as the saying goes, so I thought I should post it here.  *sigh*

« Last Edit: June 07, 2020, 10:44:58 am by FloridaGardener »

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Going, going, gone!
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2020, 03:04:09 pm »
Good job.
Since you have brood, there is a good chance they will not leave.
Swarms that are put in a box need the queen excluder to keep them in for a couple of days.
Jim Altmiller
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline FloridaGardener

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Re: Going, going, gone!
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2020, 04:20:23 pm »
Aww, Jim, that was the surprise.  Gone.  They did leave.  From now on I'm using the excluder, even if they have brood!
 :oops:

The brood was trimmed off the roof, and hived in my apiary in about 90 minutes.  It's wasn't chilled, it was 75-80 degrees out.


Online iddee

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Re: Going, going, gone!
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2020, 06:48:59 pm »
Sorry, Jim, but a cutout will leave brood often. It happens too often to be comfortable with leaving her loose.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Online Ben Framed

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Re: Going, going, gone!
« Reply #4 on: June 08, 2020, 02:05:57 pm »
I do not know if it is the right thing to do or not, but I learned from Schawee and JP to leave the queen in the clip inside the new cutout for a time of settling in before releasing her. This has worked well for me. I have not used the excluder for this purpose,,,,, (yet).

Offline Waveeater

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Re: Going, going, gone!
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2020, 09:31:38 am »
I also learned the hard way this week after doing a cut out for a friend of a large colony in the side of his house. I did not restrict the queen and after two days they left and went to the top of a tree where they stayed for three more days before finally leaving. They completely ignored three swarm traps I had set up near the bay yard. Lesson learned.  this is the first colony I have had to do this to me after many cut outs. From now on I will restrict the queen.