Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: tlynn on July 03, 2008, 01:47:30 pm
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Whenever I do an inspection, which lately has been weekly as I'm doing the Dowda method for mites, I end up squishing at least a half a dozen bees. I loosen the first frame and remove it to get some space then start loosening the other frames and inspecting them. I'm not digging all around each time trying to find the queen. I see larvae and eggs and that's good enough. The problem comes when I start pushing the frames back together. They always seem to want to get on the side edges as I am pushing them together. I go really slowly and they start moving out of the way, I back off if any are getting binded up, they get out, I start it over again and then see one I pinched too much. Just to look at a few frames on 1 hive takes me a half hour because I am trying to keep from killing them. Then when I put on supers and lid I'm killing more. It gets a bit challenging trying to slowly lower a 40# super. I lower it offset and then rotate it, yet invariably I kill one when I set it down or others when they pop their heads up. I just hate that. I'm really fond of them and it dampens the experience. I see in videos how others are doing this a lot more quickly, and I am assuming they aren't smashing a lot of bees. Maybe they are. How can I get this process moving faster without killing them?
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I feel you pain I have tried and tried but it seems one or more always meet an untimely death. you can smoke them real heavy just before putting inner and outer cover on but in the end I always kill some :-\
Keith
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There was another post about how to put the hive back together. I use to do the same thing until I started doing what the post had said. The day after I would check out the hive I would come out to see bees lying on the ground in front of the hive, lots of them. I start off by putting the hive back on the opposite way I took it off. I off set it and very slowyl wiggle and scoot the bodies, or supers, back on. Just off set the corners about two inches and twist it back so everything is squared up. No more dead bees, at least that I can see.
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Compared to the number of foragers dying each day in the process of their labor, a dozen bees is a drop in the bucket...remember, hundreds of new ones will emerge the same day. A quick puff or two of smoke should get most of them to duck down inside. Unfortunately, killing some bees is part of the process. It's not fun, just like getting stung isn't fun, but it's all part of beekeeping.
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Compared to the number of foragers dying each day in the process of their labor, a dozen bees is a drop in the bucket...remember, hundreds of new ones will emerge the same day. A quick puff or two of smoke should get most of them to duck down inside. Unfortunately, killing some bees is part of the process. It's not fun, just like getting stung isn't fun, but it's all part of beekeeping.
"can't make an apiary omelet without breaking a few eggs!" ;) I always feel bad and do my best to crush as few as possible too. Both to avoid killing and the pheromone release associated with crushed bees.
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Like Dane said, there's no way really around it. The frames from Walter T. Kelley have pointed edges on one side and the other side is flat, so when you push the frames together there's less contact point and bees get out of the way easier. I get a lot less crushed bees in those hives than I do with with my other hives.
Sean Kelly
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True enough, it's a very small number. I will look for that post on putting the hive back together. Thanks for the feedback everyone!
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The trick is to bring a hammer and hit the sides of the hive a few times, then put it back together as they are all swarming and angry off at you. Then you'll only have a few dozen that die from stinging you, instead of the 6 you would have squished. There now, isn't that better? :evil:
The other trick is... don't do what I just jokingly suggested. :-D
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Shawn! Is this the thread you were talking about?
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,10480.0.html
Hopefully it may help.
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I believe so. Thanks for finding that.
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You're more than welcome...like most things I find...by accident. :oops:
Besides I needed to find the info for myself anyway. Gotta keep filling up the notebooks! :-D