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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Konrad Catolos <koncat AT nc.rr.com>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Looks like hive has swarmed
  • Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:53:34 -0400

Konrad,

It will take a bit more work to start a new hive now than it would have a month ago, but here we are so there you go. The thing to watch out for this time of year, and moving on into the summer, is robbing from stronger hives nearby. So you want your new split to be strong. If you have a strong hive, then try to make the new one and the old one similar strength by moving brood frames from the old to the new. Use a top feeder (or similar in-hive feeder) rather than a Boardman feeder, since Boardman feeders make robbing easy.

The old comb doesn't need special attention --- it should be ready to reuse. You will be way ahead of the game if you have drawn comb for your new hive to use. If you are concerned about wax moths and small hive beetles, put the frames into the freezer for a couple of days. Let them thaw before giving them back to the bees, and you are good to go. But if you are putting them in a hive with a good number of bees, you don't need to worry with that; the bees will take care of any beasties themselves.

Let us know how it goes.

Randall

On 6/26/2010 12:58 PM, Konrad Catolos wrote:
Hi all,

I have two hives and one has swarmed. It was the hive that needed to be re-queened a
while back. It was checked out by an experienced beekeeper about a month ago and he
thought it looked good. The activity has been low, but looked like it was progressing
well. I checked both hives four ago and saw good activity from the outside and did not
look in. Checked again yesterday and saw no activity from the re-queened hive so i
looked inside. no-one was home! there were a few random bees and some ants were
starting to check things out. Is there time to try to start a new hive? How do I get
the frames ready? i.e scrape, etc.. Should i try to remove some frames from the
"good" hive and split? No sign of the swarm in the immediate area.

thanks for the help,

Konrad

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