Post by beezerk on May 6, 2011 0:21:52 GMT -7
Sorry if this is a little long:
I went out to inspect my package hive for the first time ever about 11 days out from installation. After smoking it and waiting a little bit, I removed the queen cage (empty, that's good) from the top of the frame. Then I removed some bulging comb from the top which I expected and pulled said frame out. Loaded with bees (good), and found unmarked queen right away. She kind of quickly went to the bottom of the frame and I didn't want to lose her so I gently put the frame back in after seeing that I had capped brood and larva -- yay!
Here's my 1st question: They seem to have made lots of comb in the central maybe 4 frames and filled with nectar/syrup(?), but alot of it is undulating, not flat and even. I don't know; am I supposed to just scrape all this bulging goopy comb or let them figure out how they're going to move around it and let them remove it, now that the queen cage is gone and the frames are more evenly spaced? I feel like I would be destroying quite a bit of hard work because this warped looking comb is probably at least half of each frame! I looked at a few other frames, and saw pollen storage as well, BTW.
2nd question: Do I brush the bees off into the space left from pulling the frame? or just let them stay on and try to observe under them as they move?
Last question: If I do brush the bees off into the hive, do I just rest it outside the hive somewhere and pull more than one frame at the time? I felt surprisingly confused on this first time, and so I just kind of looked, thought "Oh good, I have a functioning queen, let's just call it a day" and shut it up and have continued top feeding. (I also laid oily paper towel on top before I finished since I saw a bee or two crawling in the grass on the front and am a little worried about tracheal mites.)
Any help would be appreciated. Going to Colton in a day, so hopefully I will be a little more educated by next week as well.
I went out to inspect my package hive for the first time ever about 11 days out from installation. After smoking it and waiting a little bit, I removed the queen cage (empty, that's good) from the top of the frame. Then I removed some bulging comb from the top which I expected and pulled said frame out. Loaded with bees (good), and found unmarked queen right away. She kind of quickly went to the bottom of the frame and I didn't want to lose her so I gently put the frame back in after seeing that I had capped brood and larva -- yay!
Here's my 1st question: They seem to have made lots of comb in the central maybe 4 frames and filled with nectar/syrup(?), but alot of it is undulating, not flat and even. I don't know; am I supposed to just scrape all this bulging goopy comb or let them figure out how they're going to move around it and let them remove it, now that the queen cage is gone and the frames are more evenly spaced? I feel like I would be destroying quite a bit of hard work because this warped looking comb is probably at least half of each frame! I looked at a few other frames, and saw pollen storage as well, BTW.
2nd question: Do I brush the bees off into the space left from pulling the frame? or just let them stay on and try to observe under them as they move?
Last question: If I do brush the bees off into the hive, do I just rest it outside the hive somewhere and pull more than one frame at the time? I felt surprisingly confused on this first time, and so I just kind of looked, thought "Oh good, I have a functioning queen, let's just call it a day" and shut it up and have continued top feeding. (I also laid oily paper towel on top before I finished since I saw a bee or two crawling in the grass on the front and am a little worried about tracheal mites.)
Any help would be appreciated. Going to Colton in a day, so hopefully I will be a little more educated by next week as well.