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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Phil DeGuzman <phil.deguzman AT gmail.com>
  • To: "ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org" <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Questions related to upward migration
  • Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2014 21:39:13 -0400

My decision was to split the hive. I had another setup that I intended to use for packages that are due in a couple weeks, so I had stuff on hand. 

 Interestingly, the bees had started filling back in in the original deep, but they were still acting very crowded and there were tons of bees on top of the inner cover, so I figured they were marshaling resources to move-out. I decided to leave the original deep+medium+medium configuration, divided the brood and honey frames into a new colony comprised of two mediums. Since I pulled 1/2 the frames from the medium supers from the original colony, I filled in each colony with new foundation.. I figure they now have space to move and I have time to observe what's up before deciding what to do next - I may become an "all-mediums" convert after reading some of the feedback. I have not tried using a queen excluder- I have one but read some mixed reviews though I don't recall exactly what the controversy was about.

Any way, I'm back to making sugar syrup to help keep everyone busy drawing out comb. Another interesting fact is that the bees in the original hive had no interest in the sugar syrup so I guess we have some good nectar flow right now.

Thanks all of rthe insights (and I really appreciate those who took time to unicast)!

Phil


On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 1:18 PM, Phil DeGuzman <phil.deguzman AT gmail.com> wrote:
Greetings all! I was cleaning up my hive for the first time since fall earlier this week and noticed that the bees were looking really crowded inside the hive.

My setup has a deep and three mediums. The lowest two mediums were chock full of brood, pollen and some capped honey, the top medium was about half-and-half capped-and-uncapped honey, but the bottom deep is like a ghost town...no brood, no pollen, no honey.

My questions are about trying to prevent a swarm. The bees look like they are climbing over one another in the upper three mediums which is very similar to what I noticed last year just before one of my hives swarmed (the remainder of which ultimately died).

So what would you do? Do nothing and hope for the best? Remove or relocate the deep (but I really don't want honey in the deep). Try a split (which is something I have never done)?

I have ordered a couple packages and have a couple of ready hives if I need to split.

Appreciate any thoughts, ideas, or cautionary tales.

Phil



--
"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” - Helen Keller



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