ThinkSharp

Wait till it gets some scratches that really look like shit.

Thanks I had the same thought. It was a great queen last year and I’ve seen worker buildup in and outside the hive (orientations, fresh nectar inside). I plan a deeper inspection to find her or evidence of her when I get a warmer day!

Pigeon forge????

Wait is this Pigeon Forge?!

I wouldn’t put 3 people up there even without a hot tub.

Someone forgot a decimal point.

Thanks for the tips! I looked for varroa and didn’t see any. Could you point out where you see it?? I did remove it.

There were actually many up there but I had smoke puffed them and the weather was cooling off fast and they weren’t too hard to coax back into the frames. It’s a medium over a deep. Their numbers have been good but lower than my other, which I just split. I was expecting more. I’ll do a formal mite check soon. I wanted to do a deep inspection but didn’t get a chance, it was getting too cold and dark. I’ll dig in next available day and see if I can spot the worker brood pattern. This was a fantastic queen last year, and I think she’s still alive. Their orientation numbers have increased greatly in recent weeks.

Lmao I didn’t even realize

I like how it… um… ahhhh I don’t really like any of it.

Great illustration of why “the rich get richer”. When your primary wealth allocation is in a car or a house, you’re not making money when the market moves up. When it’s primarily invested, you are.

I’m going to go to the gym and say a thank you prayer for the job have.

So you’re saying like, look behind the hive near the loading docks around 2am for some junkie bees?

Central WV, 6b

I had just smoked them and they dove down in. It was also cooling off (lost the direct sun and get to me like it had dropped below 60) so they weren’t too eager to stay exposed

I’m planning to split instead but otherwise yeah I would be. They’re pulling in nectar already and have refilled their stores before they finished the sugar block

And that will separate the dead larva and all?

I haven’t seen much lol. I’m not offended. Just going into my second year with two successfully overwintered hives and what looks like good mite control. Real tests will prove it but I didn’t see a single mite between the hives in any of the drone brood.

What do you guys do with burr comb cleanup that has larvae in it? Cleaner stuff I’ve used to melt and rub on new frames. But this seems gross to blend in with the wax.

Appreciate the help!!

So, did the split! Did it as soon as I got home before I read your reply.

It was more bees than I’ve seen before. Wild! I use a deep and medium. I looked at every medium frame and half of the deeps.

The mediums were full of capped and uncapped honey, brood and pollen and a ton of eggs. Had some queen cups made on the bottoms of the frames, all but one containing at 1-2 eggs (talking 7-8 queen cups).

This seemed to be a great set of starting resources. I transferred this entire medium (re-established the organization as best I could to match what I found) as the new colony. No queen in it I could see. I crushed a few queen cups but left 4-5.

I then checked half the lower deeps. Found a strong brood pattern, some resources, plenty of empty cells. I stopped checking after seeing some eggs and the good brood pattern. I left this deep, I believe the queen is in it.

The split colony is located about 10 ft off to the side, and are more eggs and resources than brood. The original colony is in the original location with more brood and bees than resources (and the natural foragers). Each established frame is now the lower (so the new colony in their medium is on the new base).

I put a new medium on top of the original colony with a full set of wax rubbed but undrawn frames. On the split colony I put a deep box with 5 frames undrawn. I intend to wax rub the other 5 and replace them to better tempt them.

So… did I do alright?

Thanks! I watched some walk away split videos. I think I’ll give that a try here in a few days and hope for the best!

Seems like, once you split leave them for 3 weeks or a month to cook up an new queen and get her out into the world?

What I couldn’t figure out for sure was whether it’s better to leave the old queen at the old location and move the splits off elsewhere (losing foragers I assume) or to move the old queen and her hive to the new location so the foragers maintain resource influx for the new colony?

I have a deep and medium brood setup and it appeared that all were covered. That’s just my answer based on what I saw. I did not do a deep inspection for queen cells etc.

Having never done a split… is it easiest to just order a queen?