Our calendar says the 1st major flow should start 3-4th week of April, I
have been feeding my strong hive to build the population. I was hoping to
attempt Ross Rounds on this hive this year.
Well it worked.(Grin) I just cut 6 queen cells (1 capped) off the bottoms
of several frames, so now I get to learn about swarming.
When I opened the hive, the bees had built brace comb around the middle of
the queen excluder, between the boxes and on the bottom of the frames,
most of it had brood in it. So they are asking for
more brood space. I had reversed the brood boxes 3 weeks ago.
Description when I opened the hive:
Queen 8 mths old, marked.
1 super foundation being drawn,
queen reducer,
2 full size brood boxes w/drawn frames,
brood boxes both have 8 of 10 frames of brood, some strong pattern,
outside frames have brood anywhere there is not pollen/honey. Very little
open cells.
The bees are drawing the foundation in the super, 6frames almost totally
drawn and have nectar (and sugar water) stored. the other 4 frames they
have started drawing.
The bottom brood box was almost exclusively capped brood, honey and pollen.
The top brood box was a good mixture of everything and that is where I
found the queen.
I took 2 frames of honey/pollen out of the top brood box (edges) and put 2
empty drawn frames into the middle. Then I swapped the brood boxes and put
the queen excluder between them. So I know where the queen is now. She
has some room to lay, and I have a little breathing space to figure out
what else to do.
I have available a couple of 4-frame nucs, 1 more full-size brood box and
several 6" super boxes, some Imirie shims and top feeders. I have several
drawn frames of both sizes but most of it is full of honey/pollen mix. Oh
and supplies to make super foundations. And the Ross Round equipment.
I am going to dive back into my books, but was hoping you could point me
in the right direction.
Many thanks,
Bruce Loving
requesting pre-swarm help
-
Kurt Bower
- Guard bee
- Posts: 692
- Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2004 2:04 pm
- Location: Julian, NC
- Contact:
Bruce:
I think swarming is a difficult issue for both the bees and the beekeeper.
If they are about to swarm then you probably should have split them before they got to this point. I believe that the only profitable way to keep the bees is to split them right now. Once the bees have started the process there is no way to turn them back.
Cutting swarm cells is both time consuming, but I also believe it is demoralizing to the bees as well. I cut cells one year and ended up with poorly performing hives as well as little in the way of honey.
If you have enough equipment to put together another hive I recommend splitting instead of cutting cells.
If your bees swarm then you have possibly lost half of your bees and most of your honey crop.
Let me know if you need advice on how to split now that they have the swarming impulse.
I think swarming is a difficult issue for both the bees and the beekeeper.
If they are about to swarm then you probably should have split them before they got to this point. I believe that the only profitable way to keep the bees is to split them right now. Once the bees have started the process there is no way to turn them back.
Cutting swarm cells is both time consuming, but I also believe it is demoralizing to the bees as well. I cut cells one year and ended up with poorly performing hives as well as little in the way of honey.
If you have enough equipment to put together another hive I recommend splitting instead of cutting cells.
If your bees swarm then you have possibly lost half of your bees and most of your honey crop.
Let me know if you need advice on how to split now that they have the swarming impulse.