ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers
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- From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
- To: chloe palenchar <cpalenchar AT hotmail.com>
- Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
- Subject: Re: [ocba] low bee count-- now what to do?
- Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2013 22:08:47 -0500
Chloe,
Don't forget that we are in the middle of winter, even though we are having a great break for a few days. If you were to borrow brood from the strong hive to put in the weak hive, the weak hive won't be able to keep the extra brood warm and it will just freeze to death. I recommend doing one of two things, depending on how you assess what you are seeing: 1) If the weak hive seems like it has a greater than zero chance of surviving, don't do anything with it at this time of year. Come March it will either still be hanging on or it will have passed completely away. In March your options are greatly increased and your chance of success is also. 2) If the weak hive truly has only about a hundred bees but has lots of honey, go ahead and count them as a loss. Dump the bees in front of the strong hive --- they'll drift in. Remove the weak hive from its old location so the dumped bees go into the strong hive instead of going back to their old home. Take the good honey frames and freeze them for a few days to kill any wax moth or hive beetle eggs/larvae. You can feed these honey frames back to your strong hive later, or extract them. Take the empty frames and set them outside where they are exposed to light, air and freezing night temperatures. We all hate to lose hives but if you keep bees for more than a couple of years, you WILL have losses; it's all part of the beekeeping experience. Fortunately you have a strong second hive so you are doing pretty good. Randall Austin On 1/12/2013 5:55 PM, chloe palenchar wrote: BAY150-W18286475CB2F216E48529BC2280 AT phx.gbl" type="cite"> |
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[ocba] low bee count-- now what to do?,
chloe palenchar, 01/12/2013
- Re: [ocba] low bee count-- now what to do?, Randall Austin, 01/12/2013
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