I don’t think so, as I’m not sure how many will be remaining in the box and without having the queen they might not go where I want them to?
The box is quite heavy from memory, and I imagine there will be a couple of years worth of comb etc. inside it too. I will try your idea of securing it & lowering in stages. I will have to practice a few knots before hand, I wouldn’t want it to slip!
My son called out to me last night, he was so excited… " DAD DAD… COME QUICK, there’s a wallaby on the deck." … I grabbed to torch and sighted the biggest possum I had ever seen, it was as big as a wallaby with the claws of a cougar… have to say we retreated back inside the house and hoped the veggie patch would still be there the next day. They sure get big in the suburbs!
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The box is quite heavy from memory, and I imagine there will be acoupke of years worth of comb etc. inside it too. I will > try your idea of securing it & lowering in stages. I will have to practice a few knots before hand, I wouldn’t want it to slip!
My idea is to block off the entrance I think it was jeff that said just to lower it a bit at a time.
The later approach seems really prone to something going wrong. For example how are you going to stop it swaying in the wind? Or turning around?
Hi Kirsten, I’ve been doing a bit of thinking, if you could get a hold of or borrow two ratchet hive straps, put one right around from the front & around the back with the other one right around the sides. Then all you have to do is tie the main rope where the straps cross over at the top. Hopefully it will hang roughly similar to where it’s sitting now. I’m sure a few degrees difference wouldn’t matter all that much. good luck with it, cheers.
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Under this box I’m going to ‘recruit’ I’ve noticed over the last few days a number of dead drones on the ground underneath. This colony swarmed about 2 months ago. I’m just wondering if there is a particular reason, time in the cycle of the hive, which would explain this? They are pretty hairy still & thorax is intact.
Hi Kirsten, I have no idea why there are dead drones outside the hive, I’d be only guessing. It would be natural for the hive to have swarmed 2 months ago. Spring is the main time when bees do what the bees do as in the “birds & the bees”. In the law of averages, apparently once a hive swarms, there’s a one chance in seven that the hive will fail & die out. All will be revealed when you get the hive down & open it up. It would be good to get an experienced beekeeper involved at that time, like you said earlier. I just wish I was close & handy myself.
The hive appears to be thriving, there are lots of young bees & its very busy, there’s lots of food about. I wish you were closer too, as many more experienced Beekeepers I’ve spoken to seem a bit reluctant to pass on knowledge or are dismissive of queries as silly. I teach myself, & I tell my students to ask questions however silly they might think them as it is a significant part of learning. I thought perhaps the dead drones were a part of a cycle or behaviour I’d read of but not seen, as I’m pretty new to this & also seeing something happening is very different to reading about it.
I’m going to go to CERES in Brunswick to do a course there & hopefully find someone willing to help.
That all sounds like good news, I hope the course goes well. I don’t know how long drones live for, so they could be old ones or the hive might have too many so some got kicked out. The main thing is the hive appears to be going strong. Kirsten, don’t be frightened to ask any questions, as silly as they may seem. I’ll talk to you later, bye
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Hi Kirsten, I have a link to one of my videos that might be helpful. This shows you a close up of the brood next to the honey, as you see I cut the brood out & carefully inserted it inside an empty frame. We put the comb with honey to one side for personal use. It’s not important to get every bit of brood comb inserted into frames. Don’t bother trying to save the drone comb. What I would do is get the bees used to one location. Then take the box, say 20 meters or more away & work on it there. When you have the bees sorted out in the new hive, put it back to the spot the bees are used to. Don’t bother trying to put comb honey in frames for them, they’ll fill up on that while your working on the hive plus they’ll probably be bringing some in anyway.
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Hiya Jeff, I’ve not heard this before, it was my understanding the primary colony was the priority and am curious as to why it would die out after swarming?
And,
How’s the capture going Weaver?
Hi Greg, it’s the old hive that apparently has a one in seven chance of failing , not the swarm. I read that in one of my beekeeping books. The primary swarm has the old mated queen, the old hive has a new virgin queen. It’s the new mated queen that can fail. If that happens, the old hive will die out.
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Hi Jeff
My splits that have failed have all been the parent (i.e. new queen)
Never had the artificial swarm fail.
As you say, the parent colony has a new queen to raise and there is the slip twixt cup and lip.
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Really helpful & made my mouth water too
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Well there are still bees going in and out but the advice above was to leave it two weeks before checking.
Sarah called me into the kitchen and said “Are they your bees?”
The air above the shed and in the paddock was full of bees.
This swarm has now settled on a bucket close to the ground below the entrance to my hive. I don’t think these are the bees from the hive as the swarm seemed to be traveling from the forest and then settled where it is now.
I now someone said to not check the hive for brood for a fortnight but what do I do with this little swarm now?
I can check the hive to see if anyone is home and if not put this swarm in there or put this swarm in another hive (kenyan) I have not quite finished building.
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Hi Stuart, I wouldn’t wait two weeks. I’d be checking straight away to see what’s going on. That’s what I do as a general rule. As for the swarm, you could put in in a cardboard box with a frame of brood very temporarily till you finish your Kenyan hive.
I don’t have any brood.
Things are not looking good for my possum box bees.
I would say I have AT MOST 4 half frames of bees left. When I open the hive there are 5 frames that have comb from the possum box filling maybe half the frame but only 4 of them have a reasonable quantity of bees on them.
If I had another hive I’d be merging them with the other hive but I don’t.
So do I give up on them or buy a queen? Something else?
Did you see the queen in amongst the bees? And was there much capped brood or empty cells where the brood has hatched? You could buy in a mated queen in the hope that she will begin laying immediately if there are adequate brood cells to lay in. Otherwise, buy your self a Nuc or package and boost the bees numbers that way.