Those amazing bees!

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jeanne hansen

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Oct 8, 2016, 4:22:52 PM10/8/16
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Never mind why I was splitting a hive on Sept. 1st.  The point is that I figured the bees would pack away sugar honey and pollen sub for a month, and then I could give the workers and the stores to some other hive.  Today I went out to do just that, and got a big surprise.

There is a lovely little queen inside a cluster of bees about the size of a canteloupe, with 3 patches of capped brood the size of my palm.  What a wonder, to have a queen mate this late in the season.

Don't you just love bees??
 
Thanks!
Jeanne Hansen
824 Jacobson Ave
Madison, WI 53714
608-244-5094

mar...@chicagobees.com

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Oct 8, 2016, 10:08:36 PM10/8/16
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Ok Jeanne, inquiring minds want to know; why were you splitting the hive on Sept. 1st? And what do you plan to do with this queen-right colony?


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Paul Zelenski

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Oct 9, 2016, 9:24:42 AM10/9/16
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Many of my hives still had drones when I was checking them last week. 
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James

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Oct 9, 2016, 10:20:34 AM10/9/16
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Having a hive raise a late queen is not uncommon.  Nearly every spring I'll find a hive with two queens.  I'd say at a rate of about a 1 hive in 10.  The second queen is almost always small, probably un-mated.  It's really easy to miss them.  You're looking for the queen, and once you find her you quit looking.  You almost have to find the small queen first to even see them.  Not sure when they're generating them.  It could be early spring, or maybe fall.  I've never done anything with them, and assume they get lost in the wash.  But a hive seems to have the ability to generate off-season queens.  Now the mating is a whole other question.


jeanne hansen

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Oct 9, 2016, 11:34:33 AM10/9/16
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Marcin,

OK, so the hive was stuffed with bees and was trying to swarm (three deeps, tons of drones).  But for some reason they couldn't do it, and 5 pounds of bees sat down on the outside of the hive.  I swept them into a nuc, and also split the mother colony to prevent any more bees from swarming off.  That same day I put MAQS on all my hives, including the splits.  So even with the hive reeking of formic acid, the bees produced a new queen right on schedule!  They are amazing.

Off to the side, I have a strong, healthy nucleus colony in 1 medium brood box, with a medium of stores above them.  I added a medium of stores above that and then the little, young queen with her workers and few capped brood above that.  So, a 2 queen colony, queens separated by 2 boxes of stores.  I'm hoping it is too cold for the queens to get together and fight.  I'm hoping the lower colony will keep the upper one warm long enough for that brood to emerge.  We'll see if the hive is still alive come spring!
 
Beekeeping is fun!

Jeanne Hansen
824 Jacobson Ave
Madison, WI 53714
608-244-5094



From: "mar...@chicagobees.com" <mar...@chicagobees.com>
To: Madbees Madbees <mad...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2016 9:08 PM
Subject: Re: [madbees] Those amazing bees!

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Paul Zelenski

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Oct 9, 2016, 12:00:44 PM10/9/16
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I'm curious why you don't just combine these two hives but then food nests together with the stores above them and have a very reasonable 4 medium hive for winter?

Matthew Hennek

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Oct 9, 2016, 12:51:32 PM10/9/16
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Go bigger Jeanne! Just say no to small hives. ;-)

jeanne hansen

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Oct 9, 2016, 1:08:13 PM10/9/16
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Yes,  I was trying to say no to small hives, that's why this one was in 3 deeps.  How do people keep them in there, without them swarming??

Of course, when I say 3 deeps, I mean 30 frames of brood and bees.  I don't mean two empty combs on each side of each box.  Ho do people keep them from swarming at that size??

Thanks!
Jeanne Hansen
824 Jacobson Ave
Madison, WI 53714
608-244-5094



From: Matthew Hennek <matthew...@gmail.com>
To: madbees <mad...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 9, 2016 11:51 AM

Subject: Re: [madbees] Those amazing bees!
Go bigger Jeanne! Just say no to small hives. ;-)

jeanne hansen

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Oct 9, 2016, 1:18:20 PM10/9/16
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Paul, I put the hive together like this, because of the small, new queen.  I didn't want to sacrifice her.  I also didn't want to put her right under the nose of the older, larger queen.  Let's see what she can do!!  This is what makes beekeeping fun - trying this and that.
 
Thanks!
Jeanne Hansen
824 Jacobson Ave
Madison, WI 53714
608-244-5094



From: Paul Zelenski <paulze...@gmail.com>
To: mad...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sunday, October 9, 2016 11:00 AM

Greg V

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Oct 10, 2016, 10:37:15 AM10/10/16
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+1 to Jeanne. Keep her.

I don't know the exact situation (the yard size, how many nucs, etc), but I would keep the queen alive as a spare.
Combining this nuc with a big hive and killing a queen gains you exactly nothing.
In fact, you loose a fine, spare queen and loose extra redundancy you have.
Try to nurse a spare queen into the spring somehow - good for the redundancy.
Sounds like nursing nucs through the winter is becoming rather routine now days.
Not much to loose, but something to gain.

Now, if there are too many nucs/weaklings are laying around a big yard, then it maybe better to combine then.
Some consolidation is needed instead.
There is already plenty of redundancy on hand, even too much maybe (labor overhead kicks in).
Different priority.
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