Hello and advice please!

[Anduril]

Yes, that's one way of doing it ... my experience of cut outs is that it rarely goes exactly to plan . The comb in the pillar is likely to be attached to the interior walls of the pillar cavity and it will need a bread knife and some creativity with rubber bands and frames to get them into some empty frames. I'd agree with JBM - another brood box is a good idea - great if the free comb comes straight out but if it need cutting out ... a set of empty frames would be useful.

Cut outs can be messy, honey gets everywhere - be ready for the potential mess. Have a bucket with a lid to hand so you have somewhere to put any comb you are going to discard that is safe from the bees. A bucket of water for hand washing is a good idea, a bread knife and a box full of luck !

Plenty of time to prepare and there will be a period of reasonably warm weather in early spring .. be prepared in advance with all the necessary kit and when the forecast is fair ... you are ready to go.

While I agree for most of what you say, I had one incident, when I was doing a cutout. Working from one side of the drawn comb to the other, I couldn't find the queen, the comb was only attached to the lid of the compost bin. After using empty frames to attach the comb with elastic bands it was left until the evening to remove from site. Meanwhile during that time of removal to pickup, the bees were flying around the garden looking for a queen like a swarm which wasn't good for the homeowner. Cutout ended up queenless.
Another incident was when a member of the public decided to do a cutout themselves after watching YouTube videos and buying a beevac. Half the bees were in the beevac and half the bees were in bin bags with the discarded comb and queen. This was done in the month of March and was quite sickening to collect when he rang me up to say what he had done.
One cutout I did for the council was inside a cavity under a windowsill, the 3 combs were attached to the windowsill and not to the sides and were 2 feet in length. The assumption that the combs are attached to the sides is not always the case in the cutouts I've done.

 

[drex]

I agree with JBM in post 27 and Pargyle in post





















I would wait until spring when the bees are most likely to be up in the National. I would use a cheeswire or bread knife under the BB and slip in a clearer board, (with entrance above it) so any bees in the pillar end up in the Bb. After a couple of days remove BB.

 

[drex]

Sorry phone playing up.

Since they started in pillar, comb in pillar will be attached to walls. If anything left in comb, it can then be cut out and wired into frames

 

[Sutty]

A bucket of water for hand washing is a good idea, a bread knife and a box full of luck !

Anyone selling any of these? I'd be in the market for a few!

 

[pargyle]

Anyone selling any of these? I'd be in the market for a few!

Boxes of luck are on my stock list ... hand turned in native timber with lid to keep the luck in. Various flavours of luck available ... a snip at £20 each ..plus postage. Just name the type of luck you want and I can provide a box full.

 

[Sutty]

Do you make "round tuits" too? People can't get much done until they get a round tuit.

 

[pargyle]

Do you make "round tuits" too? People can't get much done until they get a round tuit.

Anything is possible at a price !