First Cut Out! Any Advice?

Yeah, the sooner the better:) you don’t want the beetles infesting the new hive after all that effort of hiving them. What I said in my last post is exactly what I would do myself & it works for me. SHB is a way of life for me in my beekeeping activities. I’d even stick my neck out to say that I’m a “SHB expert:)”. This is my “no trap” SHB strategy video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jskDroTm5Aw cheers

@Dee

You can let the bees in but the bars on the trap act like a cattle grid and the beetles fall through. And you can putd datomaceous earth in the trap. Beetles hate it.

http://www.usesfordiatomaceousearth.com/bee-keeping/

@JeffH if you haven’t enough comb to fill frame do you put it all to one end and stacked as shown in your video?

It’s Wilma here. Yes, Jeff only saw that frame yesterday, and the bees have filled the rest up with worker comb. All he has to do now is pull the drawing pins out. It’s looking great.

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Well did my first cutout today. Prepped everything ran through process twice, forgot one thing, although I didn’t get stung its wise to tuck your shirt in if not wearing a bee suit :flushed:.
I Had more comb then expected was very tempted to knock out some of the foundation from my other 7 frames but couldn’t bring myself to do it. Managed to get all bees in, didn’t spot the queen ,lots of young larve though. Even lifted some capping to witness a young bee crawl out! . I have just left what didn’t fit in beside the front entrance.

Hi All

I’m a newbie. I have tried to transfer a cutout hive from a compost bin to my new brood box.

I put as much of the comb including brood into empty frames with rubber bands and filled all the frames.

I put a few drops of lemon grass oil inside the box and at the entrance. I didn’t see the queen as I was a bit tense with smoke, and bees and 7 stings :slight_smile:

So the new brood box is near the compost bin. Some bees seem to be going in and out a few drones hanging around the front. Thing is, the compost bin still has a fair bit of honey comb and bees. Should I take the rest of the honeycomb away from the compost bin as it seems that the workers are still building comb there.

Hi Mark, yes I would remove the honeycomb & bees & place it next to the entrance of the brood box. I hope it’s a good result for you, cheers

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Thanks Jeff, I will give that a try.

If you can put the brood box where the compost bin was (after you have taken out the remaining comb and bees) that would help a lot - returning foragers might be more interested in using it rather than the compost bin. I would try to move the compost bin as far away as possible, more than 20 feet if you can.

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Thanks Dawn for your advice and wisdom. I did the remainder of the move today and got rid of the compost bin. A LOT of bees I guess they will all move inside?

I’m tempted to put my super on but it is Autumn here and some bee people say don’t put it on. It makes for too much area for the bees to keep warm through winter. It’s just that I’m not sure there is much room left in the brood box after transferring all the brood comb for honey storage.

Super or no super?

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When you did the cut-out, how many frames did you fill? All 8 or just a few of them? How big was the compost bin compared with the brood box? I assume it was quite big.

I am asking, because it looks to me like you either need another brood box, or a super. If they have a lot of brood and food stores in the lower box, it couldn’t hurt to put the super on and see if they use it. If all of the outside bees are gone in a few days, and none are in the super, you could always take it off again.

Hi Dawn the cutout was a week ago and I transferred whati think was mostly brood comb in the 8 empty frames filling each about 1/2 -3/4 full.

Given the number of bees hanging outside in the rain I’m thinking I should try the super on top to see what happens as you suggest.

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