Weekend Cutout

Finally. After a long season without bees, I got a new start. My cousin's husband called me some time last year and asked about getting some bees out of a house that they owned. It was late in the year, so I told them if it was ok to wait until this spring and I would be glad to get them out.

This Spring has been very wet and cold, so I had to wait until this past weekend to try it. On Friday (05-24-2013), around 11am after work, I began. After checking several places, we finally found them in the floor joists over the carport and under an upstairs bedroom.

It was 2pm before I even got started extracting the hive, and shortly thereafter, my son came by to give much needed help. We didn't finish on Friday, so I was back out Saturday morning to finish it up.

I wound up splitting the hive into two top bar hives, and I don't know if I got the queen in either box. In box #1, I'm quite sure they have resources to make a queen, but in #2, I don't recall any eggs or larvae, just capped brood.

Ants were a problem the first day at home in both hives, and in hive #1 yesterday. Hive #1 also suffered mild robbing on Monday. I think I'll take a look at them today and see how they are.

A short vid of the project is here.

Update

Been a while since an update, and still not much to post, except I plan to do some cutouts this spring and hopefully get back into watching these magnificent bees. We will see what happens.

Quick Update

I know it's been like forever, but I'm still around and kicking. Just did a short interview over the weekend about beekeeping and TBHs. Now for the bad news: the colony that I cut out from the church was upended by the April 27th tornado and never recovered. The good news: my house did not get upended like most of my neighbors. Everything around was pretty much totalled and my home did suffer damage, but all was not lost. I may post some pics later, but most of you probably already know what it looked like after the EF4 plowed through Tuscaloosa. I am truly thankful to be able to continue this blog - so bear with me and I'll try to get back at it next spring!

First Spring Inspection for 2011

I looked into the hive a couple weeks ago. Looks good! I'll try to get a report with a vid soon.

Spring Upon Us

My favorite time of the year is just in sight! I can feel the warm sun, see the buds and blooms, smell the earth, hear the sounds of new life. It's a new season. A new start. A busy time for all who care to be. A great time to make the most of this window of opportunity!

The bees from the cutout have been working good. I'll have to check 0n them and see how this cold winter (by Southern standards) has affected them. They're bringing in pollen, so that tells me the queen is stepping up production of a new work force to start this season.

Thank the Lord for Spring!

Looking Good

I did a quick check of the cut-out hive Friday (4th) and here's what I found:

Weather: PC, hot, humid

If you look closely, you can see eggs in the new comb.

On another bar, I observed larvae.

And, finally, I found the queen.


Here's a short video of her.

So for now, things are looking up for this colony.

Inspection of the cut-out hive

Date: May 22, 2010
Weather: Hot. Scattered Clouds.

I got to inspect the hive that I cut out of the wall.

Summary:

• Most of the brood had hatched & the cells backfilled with honey
• There was at least one queen cell on a piece of loose brood comb
• No eggs, larvae or new capped cells in the new comb
• I did not physically see a queen
• Bees were calm. They were chewing at the strings & some were tangled in the frayed string.

Here's a video of what I found.

My take:

• The hive is probably queenless or either a new (fresh hatched) queen has not started laying yet.
  

I need to keep a close check on this one, so that I can take action if needed.