Post by Jeremy Kosciuch on May 20, 2010 17:37:58 GMT -5
I am posting this primarily to remind myself and anyone who will listen to secure nuc/hive/split very well before moving it, and by all means be prepared to move a split at a moments notice during swarming season.
I got home from work around 2 or 230 on Saturday. As usual, I go study the bees for a few minutes, maybe 10 or 15 just watching for clues. In the spring bee count colors of pollen and amount, look for drones early in the spring. Look for mites, deformed wing, look for everything. Its a bad habit I know, but I pick up a lot from watching. So I am watching my hive with the Zia queen. I see lots more bees than the previous week. She had a lot of capped brood in there and there were lots more bees. I am thinking, " no swarm cells last week, I better check em. Sure enough had 4 or 5 with two already capped. I do not want my bees to swarm, particularly that queen as I am rather attached to her, she cost a bit, and shipping her here cost more. To top that she came back from a little more than a hand full of bees to a right respectable colony. They wanted to divide and I was more than happy to oblige.
Here is where being prepared comes in really handy. I had given Allyson a frame of eggs the week before and gave her my last super to hold the frame on the way to her bee yard. Well, I have nuc boxes I can divide into 3, but did not want to divide that many. I wanted an 8 frame split. as I have no outer cover for this as of yet, I am not cheap, just broke haha. All I have is 3 boards to cover it. Ventilation in it doesn't seem good either, so I didn't want to leave that many bees in a tight box for long. Seems as though I didn't strap it together quite tight enough, because after an uneventful 5 mile journey, (maybe 4 I didn't measure the distance yet), I was almost to the beeyard and I hit a hole in the driveway. Marylynne calmly but concernedly said "Dad"... I already knew what happened, but glancing in the rearview it wasn't so bad. Another 50 feet and I stopped, It was worse, a couple hundred bees flying around. "Marylynne, stay in the truck.", well she already had the door open "It's ok Dad." as she gets out giggling. I an throwing on the veil I get around to the back of the truck it looks bad bees everywhere, I was thinking (DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME). I grabbed the box, carried it over to a hive, and started looking for my queen, putting frames in the hive. Troy was right there for awhile watching, but the bees got pretty thick and he waited with everyone after a few min in his truck. Good idea guys, they are my bees they do know me. After finding my Zia queen, she looked ok, and putting it all together they calmed right down in about 10 mins or so, and were fine from there all out. Never once thought about being stung, my concern was for the bees. No stings, and a successful transfer, albeit a little bumpy and messy. Fewer than a dozen dead bees in the back of my truck.
I post this because it is funny and there are a few lessons to be learned here. I make mistakes same as any beekeeper, like last year I think I made too many splits and thinned my bees out too much. That is why I think I am sticking to the 8 frame split, either split or leave the queen. But that is with mediums, all I have experience with. Next year I will have some top bar hives to try.!
I got home from work around 2 or 230 on Saturday. As usual, I go study the bees for a few minutes, maybe 10 or 15 just watching for clues. In the spring bee count colors of pollen and amount, look for drones early in the spring. Look for mites, deformed wing, look for everything. Its a bad habit I know, but I pick up a lot from watching. So I am watching my hive with the Zia queen. I see lots more bees than the previous week. She had a lot of capped brood in there and there were lots more bees. I am thinking, " no swarm cells last week, I better check em. Sure enough had 4 or 5 with two already capped. I do not want my bees to swarm, particularly that queen as I am rather attached to her, she cost a bit, and shipping her here cost more. To top that she came back from a little more than a hand full of bees to a right respectable colony. They wanted to divide and I was more than happy to oblige.
Here is where being prepared comes in really handy. I had given Allyson a frame of eggs the week before and gave her my last super to hold the frame on the way to her bee yard. Well, I have nuc boxes I can divide into 3, but did not want to divide that many. I wanted an 8 frame split. as I have no outer cover for this as of yet, I am not cheap, just broke haha. All I have is 3 boards to cover it. Ventilation in it doesn't seem good either, so I didn't want to leave that many bees in a tight box for long. Seems as though I didn't strap it together quite tight enough, because after an uneventful 5 mile journey, (maybe 4 I didn't measure the distance yet), I was almost to the beeyard and I hit a hole in the driveway. Marylynne calmly but concernedly said "Dad"... I already knew what happened, but glancing in the rearview it wasn't so bad. Another 50 feet and I stopped, It was worse, a couple hundred bees flying around. "Marylynne, stay in the truck.", well she already had the door open "It's ok Dad." as she gets out giggling. I an throwing on the veil I get around to the back of the truck it looks bad bees everywhere, I was thinking (DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME). I grabbed the box, carried it over to a hive, and started looking for my queen, putting frames in the hive. Troy was right there for awhile watching, but the bees got pretty thick and he waited with everyone after a few min in his truck. Good idea guys, they are my bees they do know me. After finding my Zia queen, she looked ok, and putting it all together they calmed right down in about 10 mins or so, and were fine from there all out. Never once thought about being stung, my concern was for the bees. No stings, and a successful transfer, albeit a little bumpy and messy. Fewer than a dozen dead bees in the back of my truck.
I post this because it is funny and there are a few lessons to be learned here. I make mistakes same as any beekeeper, like last year I think I made too many splits and thinned my bees out too much. That is why I think I am sticking to the 8 frame split, either split or leave the queen. But that is with mediums, all I have experience with. Next year I will have some top bar hives to try.!