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Had a call this morning to do a trap out in S. Greensboro. I will be checking it out this week, maybe setting the trap in the next few days. Anyone want to assist, or just observe, you are welcome to come along.

Sure, Give me a call. if I can get away from work I would like to see how it is done.

David
362 8717

I checked out the house today and we set the platform. I will take the cone and hive up and place them tomorrow or Sat. It won't be Fri. Anyone wanting to be called with the exact time, call me and give me your number. I expect it to be early afternoon.

We made the setup today. Began with setting the cone and sealing around it with silicone.





Next we set the box with 9 frames, some foundation, some drawn comb.



Then the frame with brood and eggs was placed as the second frame from the wall of the house.



We spent the next two hours watching them gather at possible alternative entrances and filling them with silicone.





When we finished, it looked like this.



We will check again tomorrow for bees exiting, any entrances we missed, and the overall condition of the set up. Then either get a call from the owner, or check it ourselves, once or twice weekly.

I checked the trap today and everything looks good. I watched the cone for an hour and a half, from 1:00 PM until 2:30 PM. There was a steady exodus of 5 to 10 bees per minute, and some had taken up residence in the hive enough to be leaving it and going straight to the fields. Others returning were going immediately into the hive with pollen on both hind legs. So far, so good. They had NOT found any new entrances, so I don't think they will after this time.

I didn't open the hive, so I don't know if I lost the brood last night. We had a heavy frost, but hopefully there were enough bees to cover it. I will check for queen cells next weekend, and if I don't have them, I will install another frame with eggs.

Checked the trap today. Had 8 frames of bees and 2 nice, capped queen cells. It's going just fine so far. I would like to change out the box and start another, but the weather forecast is not looking so good. My next move will be a gamble, as to when to change it out without the new brood frame and eggs chilling before there's enough bees to cover it. Hopefully we will have one sunny, 65 degree day within the next week when I can exchange the boxes with a good amount of foragers out in the field. That should be enough to cover one frame of brood until more leave the house.

I HOPE>>>

Looks like your off to a good start on removals this year. Early too. I am hoping to catch a swarm this year, and go back to two hives. I just hope that it is not one of my own swarms. The queen in the existing hive is last years queen, so I hope that they will not take a notion to swarm. We will see.

It has rained here daily since I changed boxes on the trap. Today is the first decent flying day we have had. When I arrived, there was a mass exodus coming out of the cone. A half dozen or more waiting to come out. Here is what it looked like 30 minutes later, when I was ready to leave.



Overall, the trap out has been textbook. I just hope Murphy doesn't step in and mess things up.

I am also teaching SKI to be dumb, like me. With his beesuit on the ground and him on the ladder.

I am learning and it has been fun. Being around Wally and bees you are going to have fun and learn something. Yes I am up the ladder without my bee suit but I was not the first one to go up. Wally noticed first and I was watching many different colors of pollen being brought in by the bees.

Pretty cool pics Wally and Ski....you guys are better than me, I could not believe you guys were that close without a bee getting to your face.

Last weekend, just feeding one of the bees got me right between the eyes and I swelled like crazy....you guys are better than me, I am going to wear a veil.

Removed the second box today. 7 frames of bees in near a cluster mode. It was still cool when we got there and they hadn't fully spread out yet. I would guess there is 9 frames of bees when the temp hits 60 and sunny. With 7 frames of drawn comb and three of foundation, they were all on the drawn.

We replaced it with a medium, with a frame containing eggs, larva, pollen and honey. Trying to get a medium nuc started with this one

Ski checked the trap today. The medium super we put on had 4 frames of bees in the middle of the day. Bees were flying and foragers were bringing in from the fields. I'm guessing there will be 6 frames of bees tonight when they are all in the box. There were still bees exiting the cone. There was one queen cell, still open and full of royal jelly.
Tomorrow will be 3 weeks since the trap was set. The two hives I have gotten from it are doing quite well. This one will be ski's. He uses all mediums. It is coming along good, and they are still coming out from the house. We will check it again next week and possibly add another medium.

Ski checked the trap today. He found 4 capped queen cells. This will be the third hive from this trap out.

We checked the trap Yesterday. The number of bees doesn't seem to be increasing. There are still bees exiting now and then, but very few. I think it is winding down. Another week and I expect to see no more bees exiting. Then it will be time to remove the cone and allow the bees to clean out the house.

Ski checked the trap today. Still had 4 frames of bees, same as for the last two weeks. That says the house is empty. Haven't seen a bee exit the cone for a week. He removed the cone so they can begin the clean up.

We checked the trap Thurs. and found bad news. They were entering and leaving the house, and carrying in pollen. It signaled that we had removed the cone too soon. We went back Fri. and replaced the cone. It is too soon for the new queen in the box to be laying, and I have never been very successful at finding a virgin queen, so we went back today and added another frame of eggs and larva. "Just in case". If she is there, the new frame will just boost the colony. If she isn't, it will give them another chance to raise one.

Wow, this trap out has been going on for a while. Who would have known it would take that long.

And it is still going on. That's why trapping is used only as a last resort.

Today's check.....

6 frames of bees, up from 4.
10 or more queen cells. It seems the first ones didn't take.
No bees in the cone nor trying to enter the house. Looks to be over, but we left the cone anyway. Don't want to make the same mistake again. Am thinking we may take the box down and place a different hive there to rob out the house. Will let things stay as are for a few more days, then decide the next step.

When you do a trap out, do you start with just a frame of brood and no bees? Or can you start with a nuc box with a frame of bees and brood?
Or will the bees fight each other?

No problem with fighting, but they will fill 4 frames with bees in the first 2 or 3 days. You need to start with more than a nuc box.