Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: JasonC on June 21, 2017, 10:58:06 am
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As I watch and read more and more I am seeing things I wonder if I should be doing.
1. top entrance. Yes or No if yes should be top brood box or medium?
2. should I be searching for Queen every time I open the hive or is seeing eggs be enough.
3. marking the queen yes or no
As always thanks in advance the help here is amazing.
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1- personal preference. Some swear by it.
2- Not unless you want the practice. eggs and brood are usually good enough.
3-personal preference. Certainly makes it easier to find her when you need to.
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Those are good questions. Hops is right.
1. I use only bottom entrances year round except when I add supers during the flow. Then I put in a top entrance, too.
2. Eggs and brood will tell you what you need to know without seeing the queen. [It is a real treat to see her though.]
3. I raise my own queens and never mark.
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>1. top entrance. Yes or No if yes should be top brood box or medium?
I went to top entrances for the skunks, but have loved them for many other reasons.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beestopentrance.htm
The bees, won't really care either way as long as you don't have skunk problems...
>2. should I be searching for Queen every time I open the hive or is seeing eggs be enough.
There are two issues. One is that you need to get good at finding the queen for times that you HAVE to find the queen. But eggs are good enough. An observation hive will let you practice finding the queen every day...
>3. marking the queen yes or no
After you've marked 1,000 drones with next year's color, yes.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm#Queenmarking
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG3rW8jycDA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG3rW8jycDA) here is question 4 found queen cup in super with larvae cant tell if the are capping it and also see them destroying drone cells in second deep.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG3rW8jycDA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG3rW8jycDA) here is question 4 found queen cup in super with larvae cant tell if the are capping it and also see them destroying drone cells in second deep.
I doubt if they are ready to cap it. She is not ready to bee capped.
Jim
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I said last year that it was the last year I'll mark queens. Of course that's subject to change. Last year I started off marking my queens so I could determine if next spring the swarm was a secondary swarm. I stopped marking on my 5th hive. Two of the queens flew off on me. I found one and put her back in the hive. The very two that had queens fly were also found the next spring to be queenless.
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Update.... Checked this frame yesterday and the cup was still there but open and looked like pupae but white and not moving. checked today completely removed and space filled with nectar. I don't think I ever had this much education in Public School.
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Jason,
Inspecting your hive every day is not good for your bees. They get upset and take it out on the queen. Give them at least 7 to 10 days between inspections. Better yet, if you have more than one hive , do the same but alternate which hive you inspect.
Jim
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only checking that one frame not complete still bad?
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If that is all you did on a new hive and the bees do not have to fix everything you touch with just a little smoke, it probably will not bother them. Just make sure you are not rolling bees when you remove the frame.
Jim