Helping A New Beek, Need Some Advice

[Retroguy]

Thanks for the details on doing a reversal.  About all I know about them at this time is what I've learned at the U of MN Bee Lab but I failed to pick up just when is the time to do it.  The professors in charge seem to consider the action as gospel up here though.

[Jen]

Thanks River for those links, both stories made me laugh again. Then I scrolled down to Boiler Jim's story about all the bees in the squad car... LOL

Good reading tonight 

[Dunkel]

Thanks Jen for bring back those memories, I think \.  I knew it would be funny once I looked back on it but boy it was a definitely one of those days. 

[Jen]

LOL Dunkle, one of the funniest storys I've read. If I hadn't been a beekeeper I may not have seen the traumatic event as it was. But, I could relate and laugh. Three years ago this January I joined this forum. I had never experienced a swarm before, had absolutely no idea. Late February, same year, my hubby yelled into the house "JENNIFER! YOU BETTER GET OUT HERE AND LOOK AT YOUR BEEEES!!!"

I ran thru the house and jumped into the backyard not knowing what to expect. I Just stood there mouth agape and staring at about 25,000 bees in the sky. I did an about face and ran into the computer and got on the forum and screamed into the subject line "MY BEES ARE SWARMING!"

Fortunately, LazyBkr was on at the time, and recognized my panic. He typed back...

Jen... take a breath... calm down... make your self a drink... take another breath... sit down for a little while.

I did.

Then he walked me thru how to get the bees from the cedar branches into a hive body. Seriously, if he lived near me I would have gone and washed his feet LOL

 

[riverbee]

"Thanks for the details on doing a reversal.  About all I know about them at this time is what I've learned at the U of MN Bee Lab but I failed to pick up just when is the time to do it.  The professors in charge seem to consider the action as gospel up here though."

retro, reversing hives is what some or most have been taught to do............it's not an absolute.  bees know what to do.  i haven't reversed hives in 12-15 years i guess. i learned that the bees move up and the bees move down, and for me reversing the hives was and is unnecessary for the most part,  and sometimes we do more harm than good by reversing.  are we reversing because that's what we have been told and taught to do?

the professors in charge?...........good folks.  sometimes i wonder if they really practice what they preach though?
met doc marla spivak (awesome person and 'brain'; wish i had her knowledge of bees).......... been to her lab and office several times and have had great discussions with her and a number of exchanged emails.  i was fortunate to have met a colleague of hers (professor) that does research for her from time to time......he likes to fish our river........   and so he introduced me to her.  it was an honor to meet her and have the opportunities to have conversation with her about bees. 

[Dunkel]

I think that reversing to be reversing isn't the answer.  But I have had bees who would rather swarm than move down.  I have really had them do it more in the case of getting stuck on one side of the hive and not move over.  Sometimes an intervention is required in this case to open things up.  With a bunch of hives, especially in several places, I can see where reversing would be recommended.

[Jen]

Dunkel ~ "But I have had bees who would rather swarm than move down. 

     Same here Dunkel, and then after I catch the swarm and get it situated, I check the hive and am scratching my head because there was obviously not action going on in the bottom hive box, empty, barren. my head wondering why they swarmed.... shrug

     Goes to show the familiar saying Bees are bees and do what they please

[iddee]

You can have what you think are three or four empty boxes. If the queen has a solid frame of pollen on each side of 4 frames of brood, she has a packed brood nest and will swarm. Moving the pollen frames out and empty frames into the brood area will prevent it. A solid frame is a wall to the queen, and she will not cross it.

[Jen]

Thinking along those lines too Iddee.

Iddee ~ "Moving the pollen frames out and empty frames into the brood area will prevent it... swarming

    You mean on either side of the brood nest? Not within the brood nest?...

   

[iddee]

There will be no "solid" pollen frame within the brood nest. That is my point. She will not break up the nest. It has to remain continuous. If she runs out of contiguous frames to lay, she will stop laying. If it is too crowded, she will swarm.

[Jen]

Mmkay, let me rephrase  If you take out two pollen frames, and insert empty frames, they need to go on the outside of the brood nest. Like, take out two pollen frames and replace with empty frames in the same position...right?

[iddee]

That will work.