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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Robyn Stout <pinecone42 AT nc.rr.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Bees <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] What to do, what to do?
  • Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 13:29:57 -0400

Colin, Brennan (and Peter),

I like your combine idea. The reason is that winter is fast approaching. There isn't time for a small colony that doesn't already have a full complement of drawn comb to build up in population, draw comb and gather & cure 75 or so pounds of fall honey. Hives that are weak going into winter either die or are worthless in spring. Combining weak colonies now to boost stronger ones is a great strategy. It's best to combine weak with strong; combining 2 weak colonies often results in a big weak colony.

There's an old beekeeping saying, "A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; a swarm in July isn't worth a fly." That's not great poetry but it illustrates the point that late swarms aren't going to do well and aren't worth any trouble.

You guys are thinking this stuff through and will do great things. Beekeeping is a lot like chess. To win we must think several moves ahead and anticipate what our opponents may do. In our case the opponents are mites, weather, disease, beetles, etc.

Where are you located (general area)? There may be experienced beekeepers nearby that can come do a look-see at your hives.

Randall Austin


On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 12:06 PM, Robyn Stout <pinecone42 AT nc.rr.com> wrote:
So for some novice 4H'ers what are some suggestions about our situation.

We have two hive originally (one from a nuc, one from a package) the nuc has done very well so well we split off a third hive about 6 weeks ago.

That third hive just swarmed today. we caught it and have it (so far) successfully installed in a nuc box. The hive they swarmed from is all but empty.  A few laggards and a hive beetle or three left in the box with about a dozen capped brood cells and ~3 frames of capped honey.

The hive started from a package is doing OK.  We saw the queen, saw eggs, but not the best of laying patterns.  Did a sugar shake today and saw no mites.  This hive has superseded the queen more than a couple times so far this year.

Our though (other than it would be great if someone would be willing to come take a look with us at the hives) is to let the swarm work on the 5 frames in the nuke box for a little while. Take apart the hive they were in and then put those frames together (as a newspaper combine??) with the package started hive that is a bit weak. This would get the package started hive some more stores, more workers and probably a better queen.

We did a sugar shake on the nuc started hive which has about 5+ frames of good looking caped brood and some stores.  We saw 1 mite in the shake.

Suggestions welcome!

Thanks
Colin, Brennan (and Peter)
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