My one remaining beehive is still a mess in my book so today I just did what I wanted to do. If it works it works..if not, another lesson learned.I put a honey super on the brood box a few weeks ago because my brood box looked to be honey bound. It had very little capped brood and only saw a few eggs. There was not much room at all for the queen to lay any eggs if she had wanted too. I took their sugar water away so they would eat some of the stored honey to give the queen more room.
To begin with I had a queen excluder between the brood and super. After doing much reading, I decided to remove it. Today when I checked the hive I thought I saw eggs in the super, later when I went back I couldn't find any. I also found what I am almost 99% sure is a queen cell on one of the frames in the brood box, it was not capped and I could see the larva.
I just took a nuc box and put the frame with what I think is a queen cell on it and other capped brood. I also put a frame of honey and 3 empty frames to make a total of five in the nuc. I shook a couple of frames of bees into the nuc. I put 2 empty frames in the brood box to replace the ones I took out. I added another honey super and a queen excluder this time. I then closed everything up.
I am not worried about the main hive as there are lots of bees and lots of honey in it. I'm worried about the little nuc. Don't know if I put enough bees in there to keep them warm on our cool nights. Worried that it may not be a queen cell and I did not see any eggs for the workers to make a queen. Worried that the bees will desert the little nuc and go back to the main hive. Our bee club suggest moving nucs 2 1/2 miles away for a couple of week, other folks don't so I am not going to. Jut plain old worried if I did the right thing.
The forager bees will more than likely go back to the parent hive while the nurse bees will remain. You have to be sure the nuc has enough food to last it until it begins producing it's own foragers. Start feeding it syrup immediately and keep it up for at least two months in my opinion. As far as them having enough bees for a night time ball I have no clue what they need in your area.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest problem you face right now is the foragers who now know the new split is defenseless going back and robbing it blind. I would put a robber screen in place tonight and watch the new split closely.
I never use queen reducers at all anymore. They keep the bees out for the most part and can cause issues if a cold weather ball moves up and the queen cannot. I figure if the queen begins using the honey super as a brood chamber I just add more honey supers. It would take a lot of hives to get to the point that you do not have the time to harvest frames as opposed to harvesting full supers. As it is right now I usually harvest frames and if a frame has eggs in it I leave it.
As a matter of fact during last Springs build up I had two hives begin using the honey supers I put on early for some egg laying. By mid Summer the queen was back down in the brood chambers and the egg frames were full of honey once again.
Hope this helps :)
PP..This helped a lot. I guess what I really wanted to hear is that I didn't screw up. It is pouring rain now so nothing is going to be flying in or out and it is just getting dark. It is suppose to be 40 degrees tonight. I did not pick a good day to do this.
DeleteI did not put any sugar water on the nuc as I was afraid of drawing robber bees. I was thinking of just putting a pollen pattie on the top of the frames. which do you suggest? I have an entrance reducer on the nuc. Do I still need to screen it? If so how much of an opening do I need to leave? I am just so paranoid since losing my other hive.
Thanks for your help!
Oh ya. And check the new split in about two weeks. If it does not have an obvious queen cell by that time put a frame of uncapped eggs from the old hive in so they can try again.
ReplyDeleteI think that was an uncapped queen cell I put in the nuc. It is hanging straight down with an opening at the bottom and I can see a larva in it. If the weather permits I will try to get a picture tomorrow. If nothing is going on in a couple of weeks I will try to get a frame of eggs as suggested. With our good weather of late I expected to see a lot of eggs and didn't. I could not find the queen but that's nothing new. I am wondering if she is failing. Maybe the reason for the queen cell?
Deleteteehee...i was going to tell you to send an email to Pioneer Preppy, Mamma. didn't need to tho...since he's already been here. good job PP! yer the Bee King of North America - woot!
ReplyDeleteyour friend,
kymber
kymber...you know I was a hoping PP was going to come along and help me out!
DeleteI wish you well with your pollenating little friends ! This is one kind of farming I have never done. Well, I farm organic honey out of a local glass jar with a spoon for English muffins, but that is as far as it goes ! Without people like you, I couldn't even do that much, so hats off to you !
ReplyDeleteJane...I just gained a pound reading English muffin and honey in the same sentence!
DeleteWhen I get this bee and honey thing down pat(hopefully in a month or two) I am going to have a give-a-way on my blog for a jar of honey.
Thanks!
MB - As I understand it from reading and my own observations here is what is now going on in the new split nuc you made.
ReplyDeleteThe forager bees that went with the split are confused because this nuc is not in the right position they have been homed into. Since you are within their radius of adjustment or operating range they leave pretty soon after being moved and fly back tot he original spot. The nurse bees inside of course have no imprint on location and no internal GPS system all they know is keep the eggs warm and fed so they stay. Nurse bees will not abandon larva or eggs.
Now every day a nurse bee gets closer to being the right age to become a forager. So almost from day one you will have foragers/guard bees developing but not enough to do any good for a few weeks. So basically even reducing the entrance does no good because there isn't even one guard bee guarding it. Another words the nuc is wide open to robbing and no longer considered part of the other parent hive. It is now a weak neighbor.
The robber screen is basically a flat U with screen over it. The opening is on top and the sides are about half an inch deeper than the bottom. Basically it is placed in front of the reduced entrance and allows the bees to come out and then climb up to forage. They know that is their entrance so when they return they will crawl down into the screened area and go in. Robbers on the other hand only see the entrance hole and have no idea they need to go up and then down. It really works I have made a bunch and just automatically use them now whenever I make a split. I can send you a pic if you want but my photoshop stopped working so I can't post self pics on my blog atm.
The queen cell being open and with a larva in it means she was just laid and is still being fed royal jelly. If everything goes well she should emerge in about 21 days and take a mating flight. This also means that unless you add another frame of eggs and more nurse bees your original nurse bees will be all foragers and population down by the time the new queen is ready to begin laying eggs.
I usually make sure if the nights are cold that I have about a ball the size of a grapefruit minimum or enough bees to make a ball that big. Also move a frame of capped honey into the nuc so they will have some real bee food. If it is already capped it shouldn't attract robbers as bad.
As long as stuff is blooming bees are pretty resilient. Mine are having a hard time right now because there is nothing for them to work and they are running out of food. Even feeding them syrup or almost straight sugar it still takes the girls a few days to turn that into something they can feed on.
If you still have my email, shoot me a picture of your screen. I went out this morning before daylight and stuffed the entrance with grass until I can do better. I have a couple of queen cages from when I ordered packages last year. I was thinking if I cut a hole in the back and left the hole open in the side where the candy plug was, I could rig this up on the entrance and see if that would work. Temps here were 48 this morning. When it warms up I will go see if my little nuc survived the night. I think I should have put more than one frame of brood in there.
DeleteAs for your pollen question. If the frames have any pollen stored on them at all I wouldn't worry about putting a patty in place. I have some pollen patties I bought a while back and have never used them as even in the drought pollen was never scarce around here. The bees only use the pollen to mix with honey and put in with the larva to eat before the cells are capped. Since your new nuc won't be producing any eggs for a while if they have any pollen at all in the frames a patty will be wasted.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest thing is making sure they have capped honey frames. That will keep them alive and healthy for a while without require them to do anything to make it edible.
I did put a frame of honey in there. I don't want to use a board feeder at this point. I think I will make some sugar water and put it in a ziplock and lay it on top of the frames judt in case there is not enough honey.
DeleteGood Luck with the Bee's Mama.. I am glad PP stopped by as well to help you out. Because I would be lost... : )
ReplyDeleteThanks Glock Mom...I am such a bad bee Mama but I am learning fast!
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