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The new swarm
Mar. 30th, 2010 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doodlemaierMy honeybees arrived yesterday morning in the mail - Russians this year, or at least the queen is. I didn't get a very clear look at her other than being big and dark and I could swear she had a single, thick eyebrow! The rest of the swarm, at least, the majority, look for all the world like garden variety Italians. Others have almost completely black abdomens, and with some of those, their stripes are formed by light bands of fuzz. Still others are almost exactly like Italians with the exception of being red where Italian honeybees are usually golden brown. I think these are the actual Russian bees, or are these Soviet? I don't even care! I ordered the Russian strain due to their supposed resistance to the varroa mite, which is what I think contributed heavily to my complete loss earlier this winter.
In between rain drops, I hived them yesterday in the very same boxes as the last colony after having modified the frames - I started last year with full plastic foundation (which I've read that bees don't take readily to, although they seemed to have drawn comb on it without a problem). This year I scraped most of that clear of comb, honey and bee pollen and cut it out with the exception of a thin strip along the top of each frame. Essentially they will be drawing their own foundation this time around and then after I stack a shallow on top of that box I'll provide only the top bars so that, hopefully, I can transition those to the other hive system in May or June as I get an adequate mix of eggs, honey, and brood.
The theory is that I can transition the nurse bees that are present on those frames containing eggs and open brood to discourage them from returning to the original hive, just like making splits in early summer to control the swarming impulse. Once in the top bar hives they will soon realize they're queenless and re-queen themselves from an egg. The honey-filled comb supplied from the original hive will sustain them in the mean time as they aren't apt to leave the brood to forage. Otherwise, it's only a matter of designing the homemade top bar hive hardware to be compatible with the Langstroth woodenware. Done (provided it works - this is not one of those nutty ideas I get from the innernetz, complete with blueprints.)
Sometime in the next couple of weeks I have another swarm of Italians coming from Dane's of the BANV. I plan to hive those in Annandale using the same method, thus buying myself more time to complete the top bar hives I started back in. . . oh, December(?)
In between rain drops, I hived them yesterday in the very same boxes as the last colony after having modified the frames - I started last year with full plastic foundation (which I've read that bees don't take readily to, although they seemed to have drawn comb on it without a problem). This year I scraped most of that clear of comb, honey and bee pollen and cut it out with the exception of a thin strip along the top of each frame. Essentially they will be drawing their own foundation this time around and then after I stack a shallow on top of that box I'll provide only the top bars so that, hopefully, I can transition those to the other hive system in May or June as I get an adequate mix of eggs, honey, and brood.
The theory is that I can transition the nurse bees that are present on those frames containing eggs and open brood to discourage them from returning to the original hive, just like making splits in early summer to control the swarming impulse. Once in the top bar hives they will soon realize they're queenless and re-queen themselves from an egg. The honey-filled comb supplied from the original hive will sustain them in the mean time as they aren't apt to leave the brood to forage. Otherwise, it's only a matter of designing the homemade top bar hive hardware to be compatible with the Langstroth woodenware. Done (provided it works - this is not one of those nutty ideas I get from the innernetz, complete with blueprints.)
Sometime in the next couple of weeks I have another swarm of Italians coming from Dane's of the BANV. I plan to hive those in Annandale using the same method, thus buying myself more time to complete the top bar hives I started back in. . . oh, December(?)
