About 3.5 weeks out from our swarm (we think) we knew we didn’t have a queen in our hive, and while the girls were raising masses of queen cells there was a lot of uncertainty about what was really going on. So after some debate, a lot of conflicting advice and a queen bee in my pantry for 48 hours, Jessi and I split our hive in half Friday night.
We basically pulled out 10 deep frames with no queen cells and as many bees as we could get, after carefully checking for a virgin queen, and created a new hive into which we placed the cage with our new Old Sol queen. We bought a new screened bottom board and a migratory lid and crossed our fingers. The Old Sol hive is on the right in the photo above.
The old hive was still full of bees and with a shortage of deep brood boxes, we left the unused honey super on just in case.
Tonight I went out to check to see that the queen had been released (she had) and on my way to the hives spotted this.
A second swarm from our original hive, I think. It was about the size of a large melon, if you stretched it out. Resting on a cedar sapling about 12″ off the ground, it was only about 25′ from the hives. Not really what I needed to find tonight.
I headed back to the house, thinking hard about what I was going to put them in. We’re pretty much out of boxes / frames for the moment. Not to mention that we don’t have another bottom board or lid. What a hot fucking mess.
In the end, I used our bee escape board, upside down with electrical tape over the exits, as a bottom board. I secured it to a Western box with more electrical tape and put 3 frames inside to give the bees somewhere to go. I stole the inner cover off our original hive to use as a temporary lid.
With my veil on I headed over to see what the swarm would do. In the end, it was pretty anticlimactic. I simply used my Felco’s to snip away all the bits of branch I could and then positioned the box underneath them. I cut the branch completely off and gently lowered them into the box.
After a few minutes I shook as many off the branch as I could, added 2 more frames for a total of 5, and put the temporary lid on. I set the branch on top so that the remaining bees could find their way inside.
I left the box for an hour so that any stragglers that had taken flight could find their way inside. Then I moved the new “hive” and put it on top of the other new hive. I closed the top entrance of the Old Sol hive, they’re not using it anyway right now, and the swarm hive has no bottom entrance at all. I think they’ll be okay for a day while we figure it out. The temp cover has a hole in top, but it’s not supposed to rain tonight, although I think I’m going to dash out in the dark and put something over it just in case…
The likely plan is to combine the swarm with the Old Sol hive as it’s definitely the weaker one. The only hard part about that is that we’ll have to find the queen in with the swarm and kill her to insure that we get to keep our expensive queen. The other option is to swap the original and Old Sol hives tomorrow when the girls are out foraging. That should put some more bees in the Old Sol hive. Then we just have to figure out what to do with the swarm. Neither Jessi nor I really wants a third hive, although at this point I could be persuaded to give it a try. In for a penny, in for a pound.
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Wow–fascinating. And those pictures are amazing!
Yeesh!
I’m getting close to doing the bee thing–but clearly I need to educate myself (and will, before going forward). So impressed with your resourcefulness.
The bee shots are incredible!
Yipes! What an experience. Though I love honey, I don’t think I’d have the nerve to do that. Your pictures, as always, are so alive.
Wow!! Great pic’s Laura!
Keep us informed. This is fascinating. A lot of work for honey!!
Love
Dad
I would love to know, what would happen to the bees if they swarmed and left you? Do they have any prospects at all for survival?
All accolades to you for sticking with what sounds like a very trying beginning to this pursuit.
Who knew that bees were so complicated? I certainly didn’t. Although in fairness I actually know nothing about bees so I might just be terribly uninformed.
Your photos are amazing. Good luck with the hive configurations.
Whew, you are certainly getting the first year beekeepers workout, aren’t you? Let me know what you and Jessi decide to do with the third swarm – we planned on getting a second hive next year (we were just shortsighted this year). Maybe we could work something out…
In any case – good luck and I look forward to hearing how your integration goes if you decide to combine them. These critters are so damn fascinating!
Wow, Laura, it all sounds so complicated and exciting! I really enjoy reading about the bee project. Keep the updates coming!
Wow! Certainly interesting. My dear husband wants to start bee keeping next year. I am a little apprehensive, considering last time I was stung by a honey bee, My foot was swollen for two weeks. Anyway, bee populations here are languishing, and it is rare that we see many honey bees. Dear husband wants to remedy that. Thank you for the great info and excellent pictures!
Wonderful pictures Laura. I know nothing of bees, but I’m sure enjoying reading all about yours.
It’s good to know there are other novice beekeepers out there as crazy as us.
Last week when Mr Chiots checked on the hive he thought it was queenless, didn’t see any eggs and got stung once. So we ordered a new queen. But then when we got the new queen and checked on Tues, our old queen was in there and there were eggs, larvae & brood, so obviously she’s doing what she needs to be doing. So now we have a hive with a HUGE population (we have 2 large brood boxes and one medium honey super filled with bees, so we don’t think they swarmed).
We felt bad killing our original queen (as advised by the guy we bought our package & queen off of) because she’s been fantastic, so we decided to do what any CRAZY novice beekeeper who has no idea what they’re doing would do. We’re also splitting our hive. Good thing we had ordered some new equipment last week, so we ran out and painted our hive and we’re getting ready to make the swap today, if the rain clears out for a big.
I guess if they both fail we’ll have at least 100 pounds of honey from the original hive (they’ve already filled 1 deep super and one medium with honey). We’re hoping that with those stores we’ll be able to split them between the hives and they’ll have enough to last the winter.
Can’t wait to see what happens on your bee front, keep the updates coming.