Cut Out In Telstra Pit at St Marys NSW Australia

Sorry no Photos
I did a cut in a telstra pit yesterday afternoon it hat about three and a half frames of wax comb and plenty of bees apparantley they had been there for around 2 months the comb was dark so it looked like it had some brood in there at some stage. All the comb was empty no eggs, no larvae, no pollen and no honey and i didnt find a queen, the bees were quite calm when i was doing the cut out though. This seems very strange to me does anyone have any thoughts on this.

either they are a queenless swarm or the queen died/left. What colour was the brood comb (dark or light coloured) any evidence that there was brood in the comb at any stage?

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regardless, better get yourself another queen ASAP or if you have access to another hive then a frame of capped brood with eggs which may get them to create a new queen.

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looks like there was brood in there at one stage as the comb is dark i was thinking about merging them with another swarm i caught about 1 month ago

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Great idea, go for it. :wink:

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any theories why there would be no honey or pollen stores or do they need a queen to tell them to build stores

more than likely they are on the point of starvation and with no brood, there’s no point in bringing pollen in, especially if there is a dearth in the area. You came along at just the right time… :grimacing:

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It’s possible that they swarmed recently and the new queen isn’t laying yet. A frame of brood is the best insurance.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespanacea.htm

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I ended up merging them with a swarm i caught 1 month ago so hopefully this will work and strengthen there no’s, used newspaper with slits. With regards to adding to adding a frame of brood i think this may not of worked or taken a fair while to come to fruition as i think this cut out was on the way to becoming deadout as there was no honey no pollen no brood and no eggs or larvae and apparentley had been there for two months. As i only have 1 strong hive which is a double brood box with a flow super on top it would have taken me too long to break this down to get to a frame of brood on the bottom box as we had storms coming through yesterday afternoon. I also think we are in a dearth at the moment as it looks like they are moving honey out of the super to the brood box so i will have to check weekly to make sure i dont have to feed. Thanks everyone for the advice.

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It’s always a good idea to have single box hive with frames of brood ready at short notice, especially if we’re going to engage in cut-outs & swarm catching.

trying to build that now Jeff but i only have the resources i have at hand at the moment. It seems to me that you are saying i shouldnt of rescued these bees and left them there to die or be poisoned by the home owner as he was already at a wits end as every one else he had contacted would do nothing for him. I also did explain that i have a strong hive there that i could of taken a frame of brood out of but time and weather was against me. (Have a look at swarm list for 2750 i am the only one on it so you are suggesting i take myself of the swarm list and then people have no one to call)

I have no idea what I said to get that kind of reply. When you said it was too hard to get a frame of brood from out of your big hive, I offered a simple solution. You seem to have the idea that a frame of brood wouldn’t work anyway. A frame of brood will always help in this or any kind of situation. Even a frame containing young brood from a recently caught swarm will do the job. This is where a recently caught swarm in a single box will always come in handy.

maybe if you read this phrase again as i said before time and weather didnt make this possible.

I didn’t mean for that to sound offensive, sorry… I engage in cut-outs & swarm catching myself from time to time. It’s never a good thing to open a hive during the rain, I’d certainly discourage that. However, rain aside, it’s much easier to grab a frame of brood from a single hive than a hive containing multiple supers.

definitely understand that. I am building towards this and this is why i put myself on the swarm list as 1 hive doesn’t cut it.

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