Keeping bees

I believe they mentioned at the last bee club meeting that if you want only nurse bees, and to get rid of the workers, you lay the frame outside of the hive, and the workers will take off and the nurse bees will stick with the frame. I guess if it's warm enough this does not chill them? I assume they only lay it there for a very short time. I wasn't considering making nucs at that time so I didn't listen real closely.

NHGardener wrote:I believe they mentioned at the last bee club meeting that if you want only nurse bees, and to get rid of the workers, you lay the frame outside of the hive, and the workers will take off and the nurse bees will stick with the frame. I guess if it's warm enough this does not chill them? I assume they only lay it there for a very short time. I wasn't considering making nucs at that time so I didn't listen real closely.

I just put them right in the box, no need to allow the brood to catch a chill, or run the risk of knocking over the frame.. the foragers will find their way out no problem.
Mike Palmer has had very good success with the side-by-side 4 frame nucs in a deep hive body. He adds individual supers above for them to place honey for the winter. It also allows him to manipulate one nuc at a time (he places a grain sack over the other nuc when he opens up the bottom box).

I never thought I'd get into nucs, but now I'm so excited about cloning colonies. My colonies will take over the world - bwahahaha.

First I have to get a hive up and running tho.

I'll have to check youtubes to see how he uses individual honey nucs on top of split nuc deeps.

So, what you gonna name your army, NCG? All rulers name their armies don't they?

NHGardener wrote:I believe they mentioned at the last bee club meeting that if you want only nurse bees, and to get rid of the workers, you lay the frame outside of the hive, and the workers will take off and the nurse bees will stick with the frame. I guess if it's warm enough this does not chill them? I assume they only lay it there for a very short time. I wasn't considering making nucs at that time so I didn't listen real closely.

Having just nurse bees will leave the Neuc without defence bees and also no cleaners ,foragers for pollen or nectar or hive coolers and drones .

Several guys told me I could get away with just nurse bees ..nature told me otherwise , the nuc builds far quicker & better with them .

plantoid wrote:

NHGardener wrote:I believe they mentioned at the last bee club meeting that if you want only nurse bees, and to get rid of the workers, you lay the frame outside of the hive, and the workers will take off and the nurse bees will stick with the frame. I guess if it's warm enough this does not chill them? I assume they only lay it there for a very short time. I wasn't considering making nucs at that time so I didn't listen real closely.

Having just nurse bees will leave the Neuc without defence bees and also no cleaners ,foragers for pollen or nectar or hive coolers and drones .

Several guys told me I could get away with just nurse bees ..nature told me otherwise , the nuc builds far quicker & better with them .

All good points Plantiod!
There are plenty of food resources in the nuc with the frames of pollen and honey so not having foraging bees immediately isn't a worry. The nuc can be closed with a robbing screen to prevent robbing, if that becomes an issue.

When I say a frame of brood, ideally it should be a frame that includes capped brood and open brood and of course eggs if you want them to make a queen. You mention lack of drones, this another reason to keep the nuc in the main apiary. However there could well be drone brood on the brood frame.

The nurse bees that were brought over from the main colony will shortly become guards and foragers and the newly emerged bees will take up where their sisters left off. Ventilation is always an issue that should be kept in the forefront of the beekeepers mind.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesbasics.htm

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm

So informative, thank you.

Almost like learning a computer game. Sims Bees.

Making queens .......the quick way so you can requeen your own hives just before end of taking off honey season ( allows the queen to mate and build the over wintering nest . You can also use it to grow your own queens for making up neuc's thus saving a long period of low numbers of bees . Simply calculate how many queen cells you want and snuff the rest then when they are sealed , transfer them to the New neuc and pin them in place around day nine as mentioned.

Find a frame with eggs along the bottom cells use a new bladed craft knife and slice some of the lower comb away so that you get an inch gap between the comb and the bottom bars of the frame.
When you cut the comb be really careful use a head band magnifying glass if needed so you cut through a cell and leave the eggs in place the bees will draw the queen cells here adnuse the eggs for their queens .

Tip
If your short of day light to look at the bees or to sort out a new swarm and you are wanting to get it over before they swarm etc use one of the head band double red LED lights and work at night . They remain quite calm most of the time when under Red led light .. I've often worked without gloves or face veil at 0200 hrs or so when times were busy .

Don't do what my mate did and flick it to three super white LED's as he got a face full of unamused bees for his stupidity .

Don't take the bee suit off in the dark you may have the odd bee on your arms or crotch area .
Instead go to a place where there is a big 500 watt flood light and get someone to stand a few feet from you and the light , then do a couple of turns round , use a soft hand brush to brush the nether regions & armpits or your back & head till you are free of any bees and then get out of the suit . The bees if any will fly to the bright light and not be brought into you dwelling. If it is warm enough & they didn't get toasted in the flood light they seem to go back to their hives in the morning
You can do the same with car head lights on full beam .

Winter colony loss survey.... due tomorrow.
http://10.selectsurvey.net/beeinformed/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=BIP201

camprn wrote:Winter colony loss survey.... due tomorrow.
http://10.selectsurvey.net/beeinformed/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=BIP201

Is that survey USA or world wide ..I couldn't see anything past the home page for it is access denied .
I will try again to see if using the code at the end is helpful .
What the survey will tell is roughly how many hives died out ,what it will not tell you is the underlying causes and effects that made things so .

It will not process me .. Ah well to bee or not to bee

plantoid wrote:

camprn wrote:Winter colony loss survey.... due tomorrow.
http://10.selectsurvey.net/beeinformed/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=BIP201

Is that survey USA or world wide ..I couldn't see anything past the home page for it is access denied .
I will try again to see if using the code at the end is helpful .
What the survey will tell is roughly how many hives died out ,what it will not tell you is the underlying causes and effects that made things so .

It will not process me .. Ah well to bee or not to bee

What ever you believe the survey results are, or are not, there will hopefully be some valuable information....

Try this link David. The US only. http://beeinformed.org/share-the-bee-informed-partnership-survey/

Thanks Camp ,
I've had a quick peek and stored the site in favourites ..i'm off to bed as its 00.10 hrs & I'm up early for a hospital run.

TTFN

Went camping so wasn't at the computer this weekend. Bees got to the drop off about 8 am.

2 3# packages...They were a LOT quieter than I thought they would be!
I put them in a tote with a towel over them for the ride home.


Hubby was SUPPOSED to take pictures while I was putting them in but he didn't
First hive..awesome...second hive, I forgot to spray with syrup They were NOT in a good mood!
Got stung once on the thigh. I forgot to put long socks on to block my pant leg. Lesson learned!

All in their new hives...one batch did NOT want out of the cage...
Didn't help matters hubby was making me more nervous than the bees! He was really fussing. Then when I was off getting something he picked up and proceeded to drop the cage that had the stubborn ones in it. Then they were really pissed! And the second hive was NOT in a good mood the rest of the day!


The queens were alive and active..

But all was well by night time.

The next day (yesterday) I went back FULLY ARMORED and got the queens cages and put in the frame. Changed the reducer to the right side, fed more syrup, and took out the board from the screened bottom. I figured it was too hot for it. Highs were in the 70s and today was 80s.
I look like I know what I am doing lol..smoke baby smoke!


yup queen is out...


Added the 10th frame and pushed my frames together...gently..grrr..silly girls did NOT want to move...very slow processes when your think your gonna get stung!


Working on the second hive. I dropped the queen cage TWICE and had to reach in rofl..



But it went a lot smoother than the first day! Now I don't have to mess with them for a week I believe it is...will have to check that lol..

NO STINGS! OH YEA!

My cat, Wicca, met a bee...it did not end peacefully! BEES 1, Wicca 0


Youngest daughter rescued a bee from the ground....well..that is what she thought..poor bee..wouldn't fly..The oldest daughter HATES stinging things lol..



Pollen incoming! OH YEA!

Looking good Cindil.

How are you feeding them?

LOL, dropped the cage twice... it takes some time to really get comfortable holding things, but you must grip everything, because you really, really, really don't want to drop anything else.

Yay Cindi - You know you aren't allergic to stings! I haven't been stung, and one of the main reasons I am very careful to avoid it is because i don't know if I'm allergic. One of these days I'll find out.

Sometimes it's just best to attempt these things on your own, without helpful others.

Looks like you were successful and did a great job! And those photos are excellent!

Thanks guys!

Feeding them with top feeder. Syrup is 1:1...

Chaos and Confusion are the hive names. Confusion hive is really weird! It has a big group that is hanging out in the space in the bottom! With the screen between them and the hive. Told them they are gonna get hungry and cold! Silly girls..

CindiLou wrote:Thanks guys!

Feeding them with top feeder. Syrup is 1:1...

Chaos and Confusion are the hive names. Confusion hive is really weird! It has a big group that is hanging out in the space in the bottom! With the screen between them and the hive. Told them they are gonna get hungry and cold! Silly girls..

Did the queen cage fall to the bottom of the hive onto the screened bottom board?

you are lucky. Our packages have been delayed another week, not arriving until May 4, or sometime near that date.

camprn, my package has been delayed until May 18. I'm looking around at the dandelions thinking - what a waste.

NHGardener wrote:camprn, my package has been delayed until May 18. I'm looking around at the dandelions thinking - what a waste.

The good news for your hives is that they don't have to draw comb straight away. thats GREAT!

Yup, well..not really..if fell onto the bunch of bees lol..was NOT funny...I was really nervous when I was reaching in cause that was the fussy hive. But they didn't attack rofl..My dandelions are just starting, tulips blooming, tulips trees going strong and redbuds are getting ready so mine came at a great time!

Wow, NHG! Three more weeks? That would be frustrating to see all the blooms being!
I am glad mine were delayed a week. We had cold weather last week. And the blooms are just starting good. Missed the daffodils though!

camprn wrote:The good news for your hives is that they don't have to draw comb straight away. thats GREAT!

True.

Cindi, unless I'm wrong bees don't get anything from daffodils anyway.

Humm, I have no idea! I am still studying to see what they do collect.
I suspect the pollen that is in my picture may be from a tulip tree that is only a couple of houses down. Not a lot of different flowers blooming around here yet.