Hi all. Just looking for a bit of advise and direction on the following. I aquired a swarmed colony last july from a neighbour which had built comb in a brood box with no frames. They seemed to have wintered ok so far as i saw them taking in pollen a couple of days ago. just wondering if i can or not tranfer these bees into a regular national brood box and when is the best time to do this?. Any help or suggestions would be really appreciated.
17 February 2010 - 4:05pm
#1
Free Range Colony
Hi Brendan,
You have a couple of options. This is one. Put a brood chamber with frames of foundation or drawn combs on top of the existing colony.When the queen is laying in the top box, you can split them and put the new box on the floor, Gently shake the bees from the old box into the new (it would be preferable to catch the queen first) I would start this procedure in early to mid April
Best of Luck
Richie
Thanks a million richie. Ill try that.
Brendan.
Once you have the queen seperated as previously posted you can get the others to join her by using a bee escape
*comb without suport easily comes adrift making rather a mess and encourages robbing.
* most of the brood left by the queen will hatch and come through the escape as the nurse bees will stay to look after them so loses are minimal.
*You need to keep it on top until all brood has had time to hatch and develop.
Malcolm LeFevre
C.C. Glencraig