Abandoned hive

[jenkinsbrynmair]

What a refreshing thread.
Excellent advice from Pargyle added to by others with no dissenting or snotty comments.

The whole forum is nicer.
Can you guess why?

funnily enough I was thinking the same thing just before I clicked on this thread and was thinking of sharing the thought with the whole community.

 

[pargyle]

funnily enough I was thinking the same thing just before I clicked on this thread and was thinking of sharing the thought with the whole community.

Hopefully someone will figure out the reason and keep it this way ?

 

[Angry_Mob]

I bought a cheese wire for exactly this when I had to separate two brood boxes that hadn't be looked at for years!

How did it fare?

 

[Ian123]

Quick tip.....a couple of years ago I did a removal from some old homemade boxes they had been securely bolted together and to complicate all the comb was free hanging apart from rods inserted through the boxes for the comb to hang. It looked like a complete nightmare. I cut a piece of ply same size as a brood and a smaller hole to correspond with these homemade boxes. I added a frame of brood from another hive and a few extra frames to the brood box, I placed the ply on top and then the boxes containing the colony. I used beequick to drive the bees into the bottom box. I was able to dismantle the boxes downwards totally bee free any saved brood was banded into a few frames and added to the bottom box at the end, I’ve used beequick a few times to shift bees from problem spots. You can at least proceed bee free.

 

[Newbeeneil]

How did it fare?

It worked ok, but even after cutting through the comb between the boxes it was difficult to separate as the honey still stuck it together.

 

[Anduril]

It worked ok, but even after cutting through the comb between the boxes it was difficult to separate as the honey still stuck it together.

I've used cheese wire in the past when tackling unpleasant temperament. Made the job a lot easier for me, I'd say 30lb fishing line would work as well. After cutting through, twist the box and lift.

The forum does seem pleasant now and a quick search and I know why.

 

[Mint Bee]

What did they do this time?

 

[pargyle]

What did they do this time?

Same as all the other times ...

 

[Curly green finger's]

funnily enough I was thinking the same thing just before I clicked on this thread and was thinking of sharing the thought with the whole community.

Im interested to know why?
Have certain people been banned?

 

[Morgan968]

Thank you for all your feedback regarding this....

So I went ahead and replaced the abbandoned hive today, took a little while and my gosh wasnt it hot!

Considering this is my first year bee keeping I think it went smoothly but please let me know where I could of done things different if had the experience, as I've only had hives for 2 weeks so never would of thought about what I faced.

So I carried out the work on the supers as previously told to do, which was no problem, they've had even capped more frames since I was last in.

Next was to tackle the brood box which to my horror but also amazement there were 3 frames missing in the centre, meaning there was a lot of wild comb which the queen could be hiding in, not exactly a straight forward swap.

Anyway, worked my way through one frame at a time cleaning up and checking for desease also the queen, then placing into the new brood box. The capping was solid on the frames I moved over pretty much filling most of them, with plenty of eggs aswell. After finding no queen or any signs of desease it came to tackle the wild comb.

I cut each section out and brushed the bee's off into the new broodbox and foundation, again not seeing any queen but there were queen cells with eggs in. Hopefully with all the new foundation and extra depth in the broodbox this might stop the urge from swarming but as everything says....once eggs in the cups they are swarming regardless.

Thankfully most of the wild come had drone brood within which will help to lower the number of varo mites now I've removed it.

My biggest worry is that either the queen was crushed in some of the moving around, dropped off a frame while transferring. I suppose I will learn all of this the next time in inspect in a week.

 

[pargyle]

Wow .. you did really well, not sure I would have liked to do that in my first year ! It looks a big colony from the photos so could well be a survivor colony - useful bees to have if it is. You may well find that the queen is in there - with so much going on it's easy to miss an unmarked queen. Either way, you have a good colony of bees and if they haven't got a queen they should make one with eggs in there. Well done ... you're a proper beekeeper now.

 

[drdrday]

Well done! A real baptism of fire!
Fingers crossed, I'm sure the queen is probably there somewhere. They love hiding.

 

[Morgan968]

Wow .. you did really well, not sure I would have liked to do that in my first year ! It looks a big colony from the photos so could well be a survivor colony - useful bees to have if it is. You may well find that the queen is in there - with so much going on it's easy to miss an unmarked queen. Either way, you have a good colony of bees and if they haven't got a queen they should make one with eggs in there. Well done ... you're a proper beekeeper now.

There were times I wondered what on earth I was doing, I was slightly nervous going into it and to be honest cutting out the wild comb in the brood box really caught me out, certainly nothing in any of the books i had read that covers this. Especially as in my head I was just going to swap the frames across. I think seeing them all flying and covering the hive afterwards was some to be amazed at but can see why this could really freak some people out having all those bee's flying around you.

Well done! A real baptism of fire!
Fingers crossed, I'm sure the queen is probably there somewhere. They love hiding.

Thank you both for your feedback and encouragement its been helpful

 

[Morgan968]

So... I went back and inspected the hive last weekend to find there was eggs, which was lovely to see but couldn't find the queen but I did find a sealed queen cup, so I removed this with 2 other frames, put into a nuc and they are seeming to thrive currently, my question is I've just returned to the main hive to install its 3rd super and found eggs, sealed brood, larva in different stages but also I've come across a well drawn queen cell (text book looking) not far from being sealed along with, I dont feel it's looking to swarm as it's the only one I could find

Any thoughts what should do, surly I wouldnt be looking at taking another split from it?

 

[pargyle]

So... I went back and inspected the hive last weekend to find there was eggs, which was lovely to see but couldn't find the queen but I did find a sealed queen cup, so I removed this with 2 other frames, put into a nuc and they are seeming to thrive currently, my question is I've just returned to the main hive to install its 3rd super and found eggs, sealed brood, larva in different stages but also I've come across a well drawn queen cell (text book looking) not far from being sealed along with, I dont feel it's looking to swarm as it's the only one I could find

Any thoughts what should do, surly I wouldnt be looking at taking another split from it?

Sounds very much like they are trying to supercede .. but you can't always guarantee it ... I've had colonies swarm on one queen cell. Personally .. I'd leave them and hope for the best ... you have a nuc in waiting anyway.