Author Topic: 20 Frames of Drone Brood and Wax Moth Question  (Read 16999 times)

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Offline Jen

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20 Frames of Drone Brood and Wax Moth Question
« on: June 01, 2015, 12:28:20 am »
Just so you know, that I knew this would happen. Hive #2 to the left has been queenless for a very long time. My other 3 hives I was able to move queens around and make nucs with queen cells this spring. The only hive that had eggs was a swarm hive and I didn't want to take anymore eggs out of there. I simply ran out of options to get this one queened. So, I ordered a queen from Koehnan and had to wait 3 plus weeks. She came and is installed, and i'll check back in 4 days.





These frames, 20 of them, are all drone brood. I learned a lot with this situation. The bees were really trying to survive. Laying lots of eggs, many capped queen cells that were empty or rotted inside or half filled with royal jelly.

Before I installed the queen, I reduced the hive to 2 meds and refreshed with many more frames that the new queen can lay in right away.

Now... What do I do with all these frames of capped drones?

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Offline pistolpete

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2015, 12:57:15 am »
I'd freeze the frames to kill the brood, scratch the cappings and put them back in the hive.  The bees will clean out all the dead pupae and the cells are still worker size.
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Offline Jen

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2015, 01:22:15 am »
Okay, and yes they are worker cells. Great to know. I was thinking what a loss of all that pulled wax. Freezing, yes that would be good, because some of those cells are hatching now and the drones are peeking out and waving at me... un-nerving  :D

PS. tomorrow I will take a pic of some of the yoga dvd's that would help your situation  ;)
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Offline Les

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2015, 07:14:49 am »
Jen, what are those things on the bottom of your hives.  They are framed and look like they have screening in them.

Learned something else from your post.....freeze, decap and let the bees clean out.

Offline Zweefer

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2015, 08:26:13 am »
Those are robbing screens
Keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.
Henry David Thoreau

Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2015, 08:27:18 am »
So if you have laying workers, what did you do to get them to accept the new queen?
   They will be desperately trying to kill her through the screen if its a wood cage, and openings if it is a plastic cage.
   You should have been adding frames of open brood from other hives, swapping drawn frames in their place so the queens could lay in them to reduce the number of laying workers..   DONT let that queen out of the cage until you are sure they have accepted her.
   And perhaps, I have misenterpreted what is going on entirely...  JUST getting my coffee going....
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Offline Jen

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2015, 11:51:45 am »
Les- Yep they are robbing screens that were on the hives early this spring when bees come out hungry, they aren't on now.

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Offline Jen

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #7 on: June 01, 2015, 12:25:55 pm »
Scott- "So if you have laying workers, what did you do to get them to accept the new queen?
   They will be desperately trying to kill her through the screen if its a wood cage, and openings if it is a plastic cage.
   You should have been adding frames of open brood from other hives, swapping drawn frames in their place so the queens could lay in them to reduce the number of laying workers..   DONT let that queen out of the cage until you are sure they have accepted her.
   And perhaps, I have misenterpreted what is going on entirely...  JUST getting my coffee going....

     Well... poop... I thought the bees would be delighted to have perfumed queen in there... DANG! This situation is a first for me.

      Okay, she's in a Benton cage, wooden, she's been in since Saturday afternoon, probably still in there.

      This years history. If I would have had my three main hives that survived the winter intact I would have been able to do that. Hot hive bit the dust. Mother hive went queenless for some reason. Hive #2 swarmed and left the hive without any brood at all, I don't understand that. So my main 3 hives don't have any resources to offer.

       All is not lost though. What I do have is two nucs, which are turning into hives, and one swarm hive, and mother hive hopefully has eggs in there now. They are all doing fine.  Because these nucs and swarm hives are so new, I didn't think these hives had enough open or capped brood built up to swipe any from them. I mean, all three of them have around 2 frames of brood only.

       I hope all this made sense. What should my next step be?  :-\

     
     
 
   
     
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Offline iddee

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #8 on: June 01, 2015, 12:42:12 pm »
Your next step is to get the cork back in the cage before she gets out.

Then a week after she was installed, check her and release her.

Cross your fingers and hope.

If she is dead in a week, shake all the bees out in the yard and freeze the other boxes of comb.
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
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Offline Jen

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #9 on: June 01, 2015, 12:45:11 pm »
Oooh Man! I had no idea! Lots and Lots of queen stuff that I'm learning this year, not so happy queen stuff  :sad:

Hey Iddee... maybe I ought to just pull her out of there, and save her. I may have enough resources no to pull a small nuc together for her. I don't think I want to take the chance and loose her...
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Offline iddee

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #10 on: June 01, 2015, 01:19:33 pm »
In that case, pull her and make up the nuc. Set it where that hive is and shake out all the bees 10 feet in front of it. Let them go back to the nuc, or wherever they go. Start the installation over, leaving her in the nuc for 3 or 4 days.
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
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Offline tbonekel

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #11 on: June 01, 2015, 01:33:25 pm »
 :yah: I agree. That sounds like a plan. If you didn't do that, I was going to suggest taking one of your nucs and putting them in a full sized box in the place of the queenless hive. Shake out the bees of the queenless hive and they will find there way into the nuc strengthening that hive.  But then you still have that new queen. Hmmm.

Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #12 on: June 01, 2015, 01:52:52 pm »
Yep, there ya go, TBone and the Master WIzard have spoken.  Good advice!
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Offline Jen

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #13 on: June 01, 2015, 01:55:37 pm »
I'm thinking first things first.. Get queen the heck out of there! At least save the investment, and protect queen from a mass assassination  :'(

    I can get to that in about an hour. I can put her back into her shipping box with some water on the screen until a good plan is handy. Stand by for update.

    Thank you so much you guys  ;D


     

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Offline Jen

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #14 on: June 01, 2015, 03:19:57 pm »
Update:

     Dang! She's already out, I hope they were in a frenzie to love their queen...





     If they were intent on killing her, they would have done that by now?
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Offline iddee

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #15 on: June 01, 2015, 04:41:19 pm »
Don't go back into it for a week. Then the moment you find eggs, the inspection is over. Close it back up and wait another week. All should be well by then. If no eggs in a week, she's probably gone.
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
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Offline Jen

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #16 on: June 01, 2015, 07:11:18 pm »
Okay, Thanks Iddee  :)

If she's gone, then I should take that hive down, shake out the bees 10 feet away and let that batch find homes in the other hives?

     Hey something just occured to me... if these bees have been laying this many eggs all this time, will they stop laying immediately if there is a new queen in the queendom? because if I get in there, how will I know for sure that the eggs are from her, or a combination of her and the laying bees?
   
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Offline iddee

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #17 on: June 01, 2015, 07:34:20 pm »
The eggs will be from her if she is still living. Her pheremones will stop the laying workers, but I doubt you will still have her. It will likely be shake out time.
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
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Offline ledifni

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #18 on: June 01, 2015, 08:35:26 pm »
I'm curious -- how many people here have successfully turned a laying-worker hive into a queenright hive?  What worked for you?

Offline Jen

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Re: 20 Frames Of Drone Brood
« Reply #19 on: June 01, 2015, 09:16:41 pm »
Good question Led, I would like to know that as well. But, something tells me that we'll probably get 10 different answers  ;) :D
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