Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Raising Queens => Topic started by: LazyBkpr on April 14, 2015, 09:10:03 pm
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I went through hives today for the first time.. Meaning I actually inspected rather than peeking...
WOW lot of drones... Lot of Drone brood, and a LOT of incoming nectar and pollen... so the trigger was pulled...
My FAV queen was pulled from her hive and installed in a nuc with three frames of brood in different stages. A frame of brood, nectar and pollen, and a nearly capped frame of nectar/honey.. Another 5 frame box was installed above her with drawn comb...
FRIDAY morning, I will go into the old hive, and tear it apart, frame by frame.. and remove any started queen cells. I will remove the top box, and shake all the bees down into the bottom two boxes. I will give the brood in the top box to hives that need it..
Friday afternoon.. I will go into the Nuc, and pull one of the frames of drawn comb.. one of those frames "should" have some 4 day old larvae in it... I will cell punch 20 to 30 cells, put them in the bar, and settle them into the mother hive... I'll check on them a week later and let you all know how its going!
I did not expect to see the amount of drones I did today, nor the amount of brood and incoming nectar and pollen.. I have some top boxes already over half full with capped honey.. I really.. REALLY hope we dont get a week of freezing cold now....
How many drones do you see?
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs24.postimg.cc%2Fei9rjybu9%2FDSCF2261.jpg&hash=cd66c986829628f9ea5b09aed01d049dbd5024dc) (http://postimg.cc/image/ei9rjybu9/)
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Friday afternoon.. I will go into the Nuc, and pull one of the frames of drawn comb.. one of those frames "should" have some 4 day old larvae in it... I will cell punch 20 to 30 cells, put them in the bar, and settle them into the mother hive...
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs24.postimg.cc%2Fei9rjybu9%2FDSCF2261.jpg&hash=cd66c986829628f9ea5b09aed01d049dbd5024dc) (http://postimg.cc/image/ei9rjybu9/)
ok can you explain the cell punching?
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So Lazy, you pulled them through the winter?
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Yeah Yankee.... Sort of... I lost 12 of 43. They more or less all survived on granulated sugar on the top bars from start to finish.
mowarren;
you can see a bit about it here;
http://www.outyard.net/queens.html
not quite 1/4 of the way down the page.. Basically you use a tool to slice out a cell with a new larvae in it, slide it into a JZBZ cup with a bit of warm wax. When you have the number you want, put the bar into your frame and slip the whole thing into your cell starter.
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I'm jealous, I can still only peek into mine, probably another few weeks before I can safely pull frames. Still a couple feet of snow on the ground, but lots of bare spots.
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I hope the weather holds out for you also, this has been a bad winter for you guys above the mason dixie line.
Ken
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Thanks that's a great page , I'll save that and read again tonight
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Five boxes became two this morning. THere were SO MANY bees that I ended up making a nuc with the queen cells that had been started. 8 of them, well drawn out and filled with jelly.. so we will see if the bees in the nuc finish them.
Ted and I punched 22 cells and put them on the cell bar and dropped it into the center of the now 2 box packed with bees hive.. they have syrup on top and lots of pollen inside... I'll check in a few days and see if they accepted any of them..