Author Topic: Hot Hive! (Read 26617 times)

Jen · « **Reply #40 on:** March 10, 2015, 04:07:17 pm »

Iddee, prepare for some questions I haven't done nucs or divides yet.

1st question: I remember you saying some time back that a nuc or divide can be made out of a deep or medium?

Reason is, in the hot hive queen could be in a medium or a deep when I pull her out.

iddee · « **Reply #41 on:** March 10, 2015, 05:05:07 pm »

Find a frame of open brood, a frame of capped brood, a frame of pollen and honey, or one of each.
3 or 4 frames. Place in nuc. Find queen and shake her and bees into the nuc. Replace frame back where it was. Add enough empty frames to fill box. If you have brood in both size boxes, doesn't matter which size you use.

You can place the nuc 5 feet away, or 5 mile away. Doesn't matter. The foragers will return home and the house bees will stay.

Going to bee meeting. Be back around 7:30 PM Pacific time.

Jen · « **Reply #42 on:** March 14, 2015, 05:12:47 pm »

Holy Schmoly Guacamole! Just make a quick two week check in the hot hive to see if the new med is filling out. They have most all the frames pulled and filling with nectar. Gonna be pulling a nuc out today or tomorrow. I sure hope this works, MAN! these girls are hotter than a two dollar pistol !!!!

Slowmodem · « **Reply #43 on:** March 14, 2015, 08:27:35 pm »

Quote from: Jen on March 14, 2015, 05:12:47 pm

Holy Schmoly Guacamole!

Believe it or not, there actually is such a thing:

Back now to your topic!

Jen · « **Reply #44 on:** March 14, 2015, 08:51:03 pm »

I would love to try some of that!

Guess I have to add my own Schmoly

Jen · « **Reply #45 on:** March 19, 2015, 03:11:15 pm »

The hive on the far left is the hive I thought was hot, I still think it is. Two day's ago I was checking the top med of mother hive, the one to the far right, to see how much they have pulled, and the bees were all over me, I'm sure I would have gotten stung if I hadn't suited up.

Hubby and I have been devising a plan, thought I would run it by you guys first.

My robbing screens can be turned around and attached to the hive so you can move the hive. It locks the bees in but they still get all the air circulation. What if: for one day, we put robbing screens on two of the hives, go out into the yard and putz around, mow the lawn, see if we get any aggressive bees. Then the next day switch the robbing screens to the other two hives, see if we get any aggression. Then, the third day, do the last two hives, see if we get any aggression. It would help us determine which hive is the stinging hive.

Thoughts

Slowmodem · « **Reply #46 on:** March 19, 2015, 04:11:56 pm »

Have you ever thought of pulling the hives away from the fence and working them from behind? I always work mine from behind or from the side. Things in front of the hives seem to excite my bees.

rwlaw · « **Reply #47 on:** March 19, 2015, 06:24:36 pm »

See if you can get a rise out of them with waving a towel on a stick around with all the hives uncorked. If it works and they start stinging it, throw a handfull of powdered sugar on the mob and shove the towel in a bucket of water so the pheromones disappear quick. Whoever gets the ghost bees coming back is the aggressive hive. If they start going back to all the hives, you've got problems.

Jen · « **Reply #48 on:** March 19, 2015, 06:33:05 pm »

Ummmm...... :eusa_think:.....well I haven't heard that approach before, trying to visualize this, I'm a bit intrigued, but don't know what that would accomplish with an entire hive of aggressive bees ~ let's see what the others have to say as well. Thanks rwlaw

Jen · « **Reply #49 on:** March 19, 2015, 07:05:57 pm »

Good Grief! It's been six days since last check, the top med is 70% full of nectar and starting to cap. I have a new med super ready.

Here's my question: I check all frames quickly, all of them are pulled and have nectar. The first frame I pulled has this bit of brood at the bottom of the frame, and the last frame on the other side has a patch of open brood. Should I assume that as soon as this larvae hatches, that the bees will back fill with nectar in these area's?

Or, should I put on a queen excluder under this super? I'm thinking not?

iddee · « **Reply #50 on:** March 19, 2015, 08:34:08 pm »

They will either backfill it with nectar, or raise drones there. Most likely backfill, but I have often seen drone cells in frames I have extracted.

Jen · « **Reply #51 on:** March 19, 2015, 08:43:05 pm »

Okay, then if I'm going to pull the entire med super off to extract, and there is a bit of drone brood, do I just cut it out before extracting?

iddee · « **Reply #52 on:** March 19, 2015, 08:51:20 pm »

Sometimes I do, but if it's easier, I uncap around it and leave it. The extractor will not uncap it and you can put it back on the hive to hatch. I try to extract and put the supers right back when I can.

riverbee · « **Reply #53 on:** March 19, 2015, 09:01:47 pm »

"The hive on the far left is the hive I thought was hot, I still think it is. Two day's ago I was checking the top med of mother hive, the one to the far right, to see how much they have pulled, and the bees were all over me, I'm sure I would have gotten stung if I hadn't suited up.
Hubby and I have been devising a plan, thought I would run it by you guys first.
My robbing screens can be turned around and attached to the hive so you can move the hive. It locks the bees in but they still get all the air circulation. What if: for one day, we put robbing screens on two of the hives, go out into the yard and putz around, mow the lawn, see if we get any aggressive bees. Then the next day switch the robbing screens to the other two hives, see if we get any aggression. Then, the third day, do the last two hives, see if we get any aggression. It would help us determine which hive is the stinging hive."

jen, bees can and will be aggressive in the spring of the year, lift every lid, which one flys in your face? all or one?
don't go to the trouble messing with the robbing screens, MHO. give them time, in short, if you have a hot hive, in time, that hive will fly in your face when you open it. hope this makes sense.

" It's been six days since last check, the top med is 70% full of nectar and starting to cap. I have a new med super ready. Here's my question: I check all frames quickly, all of them are pulled and have nectar. The first frame I pulled has this bit of brood at the bottom of the frame, and the last frame on the other side has a patch of open brood. Should I assume that as soon as this larvae hatches, that the bees will back fill with nectar in these area's? Or, should I put on a queen excluder under this super? I'm thinking not?"

move the drawn frames with nectar and brood up, place the new medium super on underneath, no queen excluder. the bees will take care of the brood, and they will go to work on the new box.

Jen · « **Reply #54 on:** March 20, 2015, 12:57:45 am »

Riv- "jen, bees can and will be aggressive in the spring of the year, lift every lid, which one flys in your face? all or one?
don't go to the trouble messing with the robbing screens, MHO. give them time, in short, if you have a hot hive, in time, that hive will fly in your face when you open it. hope this makes sense.

See, it's not when I open the lid of the hive that I'm concerned about. It's that we cannot step into our backyard, and within one minute, there is one or two bees that come right up into our face and we are back in the house, bees still bating at the window. I've been getting stung everyday. Just today, I was working 70 feet away from the hives, in the opposite direction from where the flo was headed, not a single bee around me. Within 3 minutes there are two bees in my face, got stung. I went and put on a ball cap with a head veil.

Now, remember that I haven't had hives this size before, if this is typical spring aggression then I'll hold tight. But if this seems a bit much, then I've got to do something about it, I live in a tight neighborhood.

Tomorrow I'll test it out, I'll lift each lid and wait a bit, take notes, then I'll be back with ya

riverbee · « **Reply #55 on:** March 20, 2015, 10:09:04 am »

"See, it's not when I open the lid of the hive that I'm concerned about. It's that we cannot step into our backyard, and within one minute, there is one or two bees that come right up into our face and we are back in the house, bees still bating at the window. I've been getting stung everyday. Just today, I was working 70 feet away from the hives, in the opposite direction from where the flo was headed, not a single bee around me. Within 3 minutes there are two bees in my face, got stung. I went and put on a ball cap with a head veil.

Now, remember that I haven't had hives this size before, if this is typical spring aggression then I'll hold tight. But if this seems a bit much, then I've got to do something about it, I live in a tight neighborhood."

okay, i would agree, from your description of not being able to be outside without being stung, etc. so you need to figure out which hive is the aggressor.

hamptor · « **Reply #56 on:** March 20, 2015, 10:35:40 am »

Jen, I split my hot hive (the one I posted about back in the winter) earlier this week. I hope I wasn't too early, but trying to stay ahead of them and there was lots and lots of drone comb and multiple swarm cells that were open, so possibly a new queen (or two) had hatched. The hive was packed with bees. Anyway, I found the queen - it took twice going through all the frames in the brood boxes to find her. I moved her and two frames of brood with nurse bees into a new hive. I wish I had shaken a few more bees into the new hive when I split it, because I don't think I got many foragers based on what I've seen at the entrance since then. But like I've been reading here - the bees will hopefully correct my mistake by growing into their duties. Our red maple is blooming right now and they're bringing in pollen and nectar. I say all of that to say that my hot hive was surprisingly easy to work with the day I split them. I had an awful time with my smoker (which I always do) and had to relight it 3 -4 times while I was in it so they didn't get a huge amount of smoke. Some where still butting my veil and going after the hive tool, but not as bad as earlier. Which is also to say - if they're stinging you across the yard, they're hot and that's out of the ordinary and they and you deserve a new queen and calmer genetics!

Jen · « **Reply #57 on:** March 20, 2015, 02:13:31 pm »

Riv- "okay, i would agree, from your description of not being able to be outside without being stung, etc. so you need to figure out which hive is the aggressor.

Cool!

weather will be in the high 60's this afternoon so that will be perfect. I'll lift each lid, and take a little break in between.

Hamptor- "Which is also to say - if they're stinging you across the yard, they're hot and that's out of the ordinary and they and you deserve a new queen and calmer genetics!

Yep! I agree and Thanks Hamptor

Jen · « **Reply #58 on:** March 20, 2015, 05:57:14 pm »

OKAY! GEEEZ! got suited up to do my nuc/split from Hot Hive. Had to stop two times to put more clothes on. Bees are beating at our windows and sliding door. Guess what! after I put on second layer of clothes, put my bee shirt back on, put the hood up.... I forgot to zip my hood

got a pissed off bee in my hood. Walked away into the front yard, took 10 minutes for the bees to leave the outside of my veil.

Is there a better time of day to split a hot hive? or is a hot hive hot no matter whot? LOL

riverbee · « **Reply #59 on:** March 20, 2015, 06:18:16 pm »

jen, which hive is the hot hive? and why is it hot?