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ocba - Re: [ocba] Help! Imminent swarm control question [continued...]

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Walter Starks <walterstarks AT icloud.com>
  • To: Erika Wittchen <erika48 AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: cadamson.unc08 AT gmail.com, ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Help! Imminent swarm control question [continued...]
  • Date: Thu, 07 Apr 2016 13:07:35 -0400

Question 1) If you don't want to harvest this (I notice you didn't call it honey) then I'd just split it between the 2 hives.

Question 2) The whole point of this excise is to more the old queen to a new location, simulating a swarm. If you don't move the queen I think there is a good chance that you will still have a swarm. It's possible (even likely) that she will be much smaller than usual. The workers will be encouraging her to lose weight in order to be able to fly.

______

Walter


You never can tell with bees. ~ Winnie-the-Pooh

On Apr 7, 2016, at 11:53 AM, Erika Wittchen <erika48 AT gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for the speedy responses Catherine and Walter!

We did observe eggs in the hive yesterday, so pretty sure they haven't swarmed.  This afternoon we plan to do what Walter suggested, essentially doing an artificial swarm.   I have a couple specific questions about this procedure:

From my online research, the basic method is: (taken from www.talkingwithbees.com)

Hive A = the original hive, full of bees.  Hive B = a new hive, with foundation (and drawn comb if you have some) and no bees.

  1. Smoke Hive A
  2. Move Hive A and replace with Hive B
    1. Flying bees will now start entering Hive B
  3. Remove 2-3 frames from the centre of Hive B
  4. Open Hive A and find the Queen (take your time)
  5. Take the frame with the Queen and place it in Hive B
  6. Find 2-3 frames with sealed brood and bees and place in Hive B
  7. Cut out any Queen cells from Hive B
  8. Place the 2-3 frames of foundation in Hive A
  9. Leave any Queen cells in Hive A
  10. Feed if required
Question 1: We have 2 full mediums of nectar (a lot of it capped) on this hive.  Do we put these back on top of the hive with the old Queen (Hive B above)? Or put one medium on each of the split hives?

Question 2: Worst case scenario:  we are neck-deep in the hive, at step 4 of the above procedure, but we can't find the queen to move to the new location??? (and assuming she's still there).  We usually have really good luck finding her, and did spot her on March 26th, but if we can't today, then what?

Whew...hopefully my long-winded thought process hasn't completely confused everyone :-)
As always, appreciate the insight from this listserve!

Wish us luck,
Erika




On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 8:31 AM, Walter Starks <walterstarks AT icloud.com> wrote:
I would move the old queen and maybe two frames of bees one or two frames of honey into a nuc. If you don't have a nuc ready you can probably get a cardboard one at Bailey's.

An alternative would be to just split the deeps into two hives. Make sure the swarm cells stay at the current hive location and the old queen is in the hive at the new location.

You need to be sure they haven't already swarmed though. It could have happened when no one was around, and you wouldn't necessarily notice.

______

Walter


You never can tell with bees. ~ Winnie-the-Pooh

On Apr 6, 2016, at 11:47 PM, Erika Wittchen <erika48 AT gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all, 
Looking for some guidance... Here's the current situation:
We have one hive (and only the one) that came through winter very strong, we inspected a couple weeks ago and added a super on top because they were starting to backfill the broodnest. This past weekend, we installed 2 new packages (so 3 total in our yard).  Today, when we checked the new hives to confirm queen release, we also peeked into the established hive. Unfortunately (but probably not surprisingly) there were at least 3 queen cups with eggs in royal jelly and 2 (that we saw) sealed Queen cells.  

We realize swarming is imminent...but what can we do to minimize impact or even prevent it? One thought would be to do a split to simulate an artificial swarm, but the best way to do this is unclear. Ideas? Since we have 2 new package hives, would it be possible to transfer some of the brood frames and/or nectar frames to the new hives, at the same time as swarm mitigation? We realize that we may be too late to prevent a swarm from a colony that has already made up its mind, but welcome any ideas on how to minimize impact.

Any insights from others' experiences would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Erika
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