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  • From: "Thomas Grizzle" <griz AT mindspring.com>
  • To: "'John Rintoul'" <rintoul AT me.com>
  • Cc: <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Off with her head?
  • Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2016 12:44:55 -0400

Hi John,

 

Thanks for your thoughts.  I was torn and opted for low-carnage but understand your inclination. 

 

I disrupted the hive quite a bit with the removal of frames (replacing with empty comb) and pouring off some bees into the nuc.  There were at least 3 swarm cells left behind in the hive and I’m thinking one hive is queenless so the first to hatch will kill the remaining queens and that will be that.  On the hive with the sickly queen, I’d bet she cannot fly, so I’m not sure what will happen there, maybe some mortal combat where Miss Sickly kicks the bucket?  I can hope. 

 

Thomas B. Grizzle

919.967.5199

 

 

From: John Rintoul [mailto:rintoul AT me.com]
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2016 10:57 AM
To: Thomas Grizzle
Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [ocba] Off with her head?

 

My inclination would have been to kill her. As it is she will be leaving soon with a swarm. By killing her you may have avoided the departure of a swarm. I assume that you left some swarm cells in the original colony, so a new queen is on the way. The new queen's pheromones will keep the colony in order.

 

But, as we know, there are a thousand ways to do things and the bees will survive us all.

 

John Rintoul
(919) 414-4071 (M)

 

No trees or bees were killed in the distribution of this message, but countless electrons were seriously inconvenienced.

 

 

 

On Apr 18, 2016, at 10:23 AM, Thomas Grizzle <griz AT mindspring.com> wrote:

 

Hey y’all,

 

The last week of March I did a MAQS treatment in my two backyard hives because I had mite counts of 5 and 7 per ½ cup of bees, sub-threshold numbers, but at that time of year it seemed to make sense.  Well, it’s now 2 weeks after I removed the treatment strips and I decided it was time to check on the girls and boys.  Both hives had only capped brood.  I did find the queen in one hive and she was one pitiful looking thing!  There were at least 5 “swarm cells” in each hive so I know they will recover just fine.  My question is, should I have killed that queen or left her?  She look like she had lost body mass and did not move around in a normal fashion, as if she had a neurological problem.  My thinking in leaving her was that, while she was not laying, perhaps she was still producing pheromones and running the show to some extent and why not leave her until the new queen comes on line?  Should I have just popped her head off?

 

I used the occasion to do two splits, one from each hive, where I took a frame from each with 1-2 swarm cells and put them into two nuc boxes I had on hand, along with some frames of capped brood and honey.  They have stayed and hopefully a new queen will hatch.  In a month or two, if anyone needs a nuc, I will have one for sale.  I’ll keep the other.

 

Cheers!

 

Thomas B. Grizzle

1541 Ferrell Road

Chapel Hill, NC 27517 USA

919.967.5199

 

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