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I know most bee keepers would not even consider going into their hives on January 4th, but here in deep south, with winter temperatures being so moderate, I'm doing cut outs, and for the first cut out of the year, this one was full of surprises.
I have found that by removing bees between November and February, as long as day time temps get above the mid 50's, the chances of the bees surviving the ordeal are the greatest. Of course, in order for the bees to survive, all the stores have to be given back to the bees, and the queen has to be alive. My reasons for removing bees at this time of the year are because the number of the bees in the hive are the smallest, and there is hardly any brood at all due to the fact they have all hatched and the queen has, for all practical purposes, shut down.
Generally speaking, our queens begin to stop laying toward the end of October, and start up again around mid January, so you can understand my surprise when I opened this hive to discover a very healthy brood pattern with capped brood, developing larva, and eggs. This stage of development would be typical around mid February, not the beginning of January. What does this mean? I really don't know yet, but you can best believe I will be paying attention to what my bees are doing as I do rotations in the next 2 weeks, rain permitting.
Oh yes, there was the added surprise of nicking an electrical wire as I did the removal, and there was a bit of flash. I'm glad I was wearing rubber gloves and rubber boots, and that the contractor repaired the wiring the same day.
A big thanks to Good Time Charlie for helping me out on this one, he did all the removal videoing, and despite the very limited space to work in, he did a great job capturing some great imagery. Then, when we got to the abbey, he helped frame up the comb as well as set the boxes up. And thanks to Sadie, Charlie's dog, for helping out as well. God's peace to all!
Mr. Ed
12 авг 2024
