PS Dusty, that’s a nice looking chest of drawers, it would be a shame to put a power saw through the top of it. How would you go prizing the back boards off with a pinch bar?
I recently discovered that bees don’t like the vibrations of a power saw. This colony didn’t get angry, they just clustered up instead of going onto the frame of brood I placed there. They must have went onto it after dark. We went back several days later to find the frame of brood covered in bees, including the queen. We brought the colony home that night. The queen (a nice golden color) is laying like a beauty. The bees were under the floor of a cubby house.
If your friend wants to use the frame of brood method, tell him you can place the frame of brood flat, or any angle that the frame fits. It doesn’t have to stand vertical. Flat was the only way I could put it in the cubby house & it worked out fine.
Thanks for the advice. So you suggest putting a brood in the drawer and then removing it maybe a couple days later and that the queen should be there laying? And then putting it and the rest of the bee’s in a super? Sorry I still don’t have all the terminology and steps down in my head. Dusty
Hi Dusty, in your case, I’d only leave it there for an hour. Leave yourself plenty of daylight. If your bees have only just arrived, they may not have built much comb yet. I would smoke them & protect myself & gently open the drawer. You’ll probably squash some of their comb in the process, however it’s probably all you can do without cutting away at the top. Once you open the drawer, gently break all of their comb down. Then sit a frame of brood in the drawer, resting it on the drawer opening. Put a couple of cleats on the bottom of the drawer so you don’t squash many bees with the bottom of the frame. After an hour, the frame of brood should be covered in bees, including the queen. Then gently transfer the frame of brood into the brood box, put the lid on, then sit the drawer upside down over the brood box like I did with the bird box. Position the brood box entrance as close as you can to where the bees are used to going. Look for signs of bees fanning their scent like in the pot plant video. That will indicate that the queen is in the box. If the bees come streaming out of the box, that will indicate that the queen is outside. If that happens, just repeat the process to where the bees have clustered. The queen will naturally be drawn to the frame of brood, sooner or later.
You beekeeper friend may have other ideas, however this is how I would approach the situation based on my evolving strategies.
I see @JeffH has answered your question, but just to clarify, he means a frame of early and developing brood from an existing hive. You probably won’t have that available unless you already have a bee colony.
Well. Except for some auxiliary issues, it all went as planned and the hive was transferred into a brood box yesterday afternoon with “Ron” who owns a bee removal company leading the operation step by step. The ‘kit’ was minus a lid, so we quickly set about making a temporary and weighted it blocks. We started out at his yard where I helped transfer some of his bee removal nucs to hives. Only got stung twice- I got a bee in my bonnet lol (my suit didn’t fit and zipper broke as well). So I’m fully initiated without a trip to the ER. Then we came back to my place and moved the dresser about 20 feet from the door it was near. We pried the top off. then removed the drawer and so began the process of removing the bee’s comb etc. and vacuuming stubborn bee’s and transferring them into the hive.There were 3 combs started, the tallest one about 5" so it had been around longer than I thought, but it was still pretty new. From there we replaced the top to the dresser and setting the hive back on top of it, in it’s new location. We didn’t find the queen but she’s in there. He said we had 3-3 1/2 lbs of bee’s. This morning some of the bee’s are going back to the old location and I have been brushing them into a box and moving them over to the new location but it’s having so-so results (I’m going to stop doing that I think). Ron told me that the confused ones would eventually find there way to the new location but time will tell- Praying so. So the bee adventure begins. My son video’d the affair and as soon as I learn how to upload it to youtube I will post it. Thanks to everyone for your kind advice. I’m going to open up the hive in two weeks for a check and post my results. Yall have a great day! Noel
