Split a Hive Today
Split a Hive Today
I found my 2016 Wayne's Bee queen at home and moved her into a nuc with some brood and feed frames. The original hive was very strong, but not in swarm mode yet. I was surprised at the amount of nectar and new white wax cappings I saw. Tomorrow, I may well add a second super of open drawn comb on my strong hives at the house.
Re: Split a Hive Today
My strong hives got supers of open drawn comb as I had planned on, and are putting them to use. I had a really crowded hive in 6 mediums. I went through all supers and frames looking for the marked queen to move her, but she eluded me. I had to use an inspectors jacket and gloves as these are not very forgiving bees and got riled quickly. I got about 15 stings, took 15 frames of capped honey, and took out 4 frames of capped brood and larvae. I did not see eggs in these 4 frames, so I took a frame from my Wayne's Bee nuc that had some eggs in it and rounded out the 5 frames. In addition to replacing the 19 frames with open drawn comb, I checkerboarded 20 frames of open drawn comb, adding 2 medium supers for a total of 8 supers. Despite being that strong, there were NO swarm cells anywhere.
The front of the hive looks a lot less crowded, but I think it is going to be a few days before I am forgiven and will be able to walk out in front of this hive without being seriously bumped or worse.
The front of the hive looks a lot less crowded, but I think it is going to be a few days before I am forgiven and will be able to walk out in front of this hive without being seriously bumped or worse.
Re: Split a Hive Today
Sometimes plans work out--sometimes you just get lucky. The 8 medium super hive appears to have finally forgiven me. They are not coming at me with the bad intent they have had since Sunday. I went to check the nuc I had put together with the 4 frames of capped brood from this hive and eggs from my old Wayne's queen. Much to my surprise, the Wayne's queen was in the nuc and is doing fine. How I missed her (with her white mark) on 1 frame, I do not know, but the nuc I took her from has several queen cells going now.
I went through the original hive I took the Wayne's queen from. The new queen was laying in the first medium, so I caught her and gave her a red mark. For once, a plan worked out and I had a strong hive making a new queen with brood interruption and few baby bees to feed during the flow. I took 26 medium frames of capped honey and gave them back 16 frames of open, drawn comb and partial frames of honey. I will be curious to see what they can do with what remains of our flow.
I went through the original hive I took the Wayne's queen from. The new queen was laying in the first medium, so I caught her and gave her a red mark. For once, a plan worked out and I had a strong hive making a new queen with brood interruption and few baby bees to feed during the flow. I took 26 medium frames of capped honey and gave them back 16 frames of open, drawn comb and partial frames of honey. I will be curious to see what they can do with what remains of our flow.