Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => HONEYBEE REMOVAL => Topic started by: stanisr on November 01, 2016, 01:31:31 pm

Title: Late Cut-out Question
Post by: stanisr on November 01, 2016, 01:31:31 pm
Performed a cut-out this weekend, even though it is too late in the year but they were tearing down an old house and opened up the wall to discover a colony. So I went out and rescued the colony. They had very little honey and would not have made a normal winter anyway. So I put them in a hive and Put a feeder on them, Going to open them up and see if the queen made it and is laying this weekend. If so I have extra frames of honey I can give them. If not I will combine the bees with another hive.
My question is, how long should it take for the queen to start laying in drawn comb after putting them in the hive.
Title: Re: Late Cut-out Question
Post by: BeeMaster2 on November 01, 2016, 01:38:51 pm
Depends on your weather. She is probably past raising larvae for the year. Feeding them will get her to start laying but if their is no pollen coming in, they cannot feed them.
If you have enough honey in comb, give them enough to make it through the winter and see what happens.
Good luck and let us know how it works out.
Jim
Title: Re: Late Cut-out Question
Post by: stanisr on November 01, 2016, 01:48:55 pm
Queens in my other hives are still laying and raising. So I thought she might lay so I could be sure she is alive and well. We are having a very warm fall here in Oklahoma. I saw pollen coming in last week.
Title: Re: Late Cut-out Question
Post by: Acebird on November 01, 2016, 03:02:28 pm
They had very little honey and would not have made a normal winter anyway.

I will ask the question why?  Was this a late swarm that took up residence in an old hive?  Any brood?  If there is no brood why would the queen start again?  Was there a queen to start with?
Title: Re: Late Cut-out Question
Post by: iddee on November 01, 2016, 03:05:30 pm
She should be laying in 3 to 5 days.
Title: Re: Late Cut-out Question
Post by: stanisr on November 01, 2016, 03:32:48 pm
 "Was this a late swarm that took up residence in an old hive?  Any brood?"   I think that this was a late swarm and that is the most probable explanation. They had brood and had some honey, probably 25 to 35 lbs. I just don't think that there would have been enough for the winter. My guess is there were 35lbs of bees. I put them in a 10 frame deep and it was full and heavy.
Title: Re: Late Cut-out Question
Post by: BeeMaster2 on November 02, 2016, 01:11:34 pm
"Was this a late swarm that took up residence in an old hive?  Any brood?"   I think that this was a late swarm and that is the most probable explanation. They had brood and had some honey, probably 25 to 35 lbs. I just don't think that there would have been enough for the winter. My guess is there were 35lbs of bees. I put them in a 10 frame deep and it was full and heavy.

35 LBS of bees, now that is one large swarm, more like 10 swarms put together.
I suspect you meant 3 to 5 LBS.  :grin:
Jim
Title: Re: Late Cut-out Question
Post by: stanisr on November 02, 2016, 01:56:50 pm
yes sorry for the typo
Title: Re: Late Cut-out Question
Post by: stanisr on November 07, 2016, 11:12:36 am
Well. I opened up the hive and found eggs and also located the queen. She is a very nice queen of good size. So I put some frames of honey I had stored and a feeder on the hive. I will know come spring if I did the right thing.