- Joined
- Feb 21, 2017
- Messages
- 1,081
- Reaction score
- 151
- Location
- Pensilva, East Cornwall
- Number of Hives
- None, ex-beekeeper
In my head it goes like this:
I have a nadir to remove from beneath my 14 x 12 brood box so that I go into the spring with everything standard. I wait for a cold day, the cluster is tightly packed in the upper half of the brood box leaving the nadir empty. Put new stand out, lever off the brood box, move it quickly to new stand. Remove old stand and nadir. Go about business with a job well done.
How it actually goes:
It is cold so I put out new stand next to old one. Lever up brood box. Lift it up and place on to new stand leaving empty nadir in place. Suitably lifted and placed. Looked at nadir -- full of freakin' bees! I have split the cluster! Don't panic, just replace the brood box on top of the old nadir. Did that. New stand with OMF is covered in bees that fell out of the brood box -- oh shite. Pick up OMF and place in front of entrance to hive and try to shake bees off so that they can climb back into the old hive. They die, 200 ish bees die in seconds in the cold. Got a couple back in by hand but the damage is done. I have interfered and achieved nothing at all.
Lesson learned. When I want to get the nadir out I shall wait until a lovely warm day, probably in April and do it under more control. I can only hope that none of the dead bees was the queen and that I didn't squash her when I replaced the brood box in it's original position.
I now know how I should go about it so any coulda/woulda/shoulda remarks won't help. I post this for other new beeks to learn from before they make the same or similar mistakes.
Of course the biggest mistake was last year when I treated for varroa with a super on and couldn't use the honey and so left it for the bees for the winter. Another mistake I won't make again.
The only good thing that has come out of this debacle is that I know there are about 20 - 30kg of stores in the brood box as it was a devil to lift.
The really stupid thing is that I asked for advice on this very matter late last year and the general concensus was that I should leave it until April, I even agreed that this was the right course of action then suddenly I get this idea in my head.
I have a nadir to remove from beneath my 14 x 12 brood box so that I go into the spring with everything standard. I wait for a cold day, the cluster is tightly packed in the upper half of the brood box leaving the nadir empty. Put new stand out, lever off the brood box, move it quickly to new stand. Remove old stand and nadir. Go about business with a job well done.
How it actually goes:
It is cold so I put out new stand next to old one. Lever up brood box. Lift it up and place on to new stand leaving empty nadir in place. Suitably lifted and placed. Looked at nadir -- full of freakin' bees! I have split the cluster! Don't panic, just replace the brood box on top of the old nadir. Did that. New stand with OMF is covered in bees that fell out of the brood box -- oh shite. Pick up OMF and place in front of entrance to hive and try to shake bees off so that they can climb back into the old hive. They die, 200 ish bees die in seconds in the cold. Got a couple back in by hand but the damage is done. I have interfered and achieved nothing at all.
Lesson learned. When I want to get the nadir out I shall wait until a lovely warm day, probably in April and do it under more control. I can only hope that none of the dead bees was the queen and that I didn't squash her when I replaced the brood box in it's original position.
I now know how I should go about it so any coulda/woulda/shoulda remarks won't help. I post this for other new beeks to learn from before they make the same or similar mistakes.
Of course the biggest mistake was last year when I treated for varroa with a super on and couldn't use the honey and so left it for the bees for the winter. Another mistake I won't make again.
The only good thing that has come out of this debacle is that I know there are about 20 - 30kg of stores in the brood box as it was a devil to lift.
The really stupid thing is that I asked for advice on this very matter late last year and the general concensus was that I should leave it until April, I even agreed that this was the right course of action then suddenly I get this idea in my head.
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