Author Topic: Took apart a hive today  (Read 1017 times)

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Offline gibb

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Took apart a hive today
« on: June 14, 2017, 09:21:42 pm »
Had one of my hives that was only using the top entrance on a double deep set-up. It looked like they had possible swarmed and were queen-less. After reversing the deeps and cleaning off any burr comb i did not see any eggs or capped brood but decided to wait another week before requeening just in case I had a new queen that had not settled in yet. After the clean up and reversal the hive was much more active. Should I have just re-queened and not wasted the time?
They had a lot of capped honey and pollen in the hive.
I did not see a queen during my inspection and I did tear apart the complete hive, no storage of bees.

Offline Perry

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Re: Took apart a hive today
« Reply #1 on: June 15, 2017, 06:46:31 am »
Sounds like it swarmed alright. Patience is a hard  thing to have when you are waiting for a hive to requeen itself (ask me, I know  :-[)
Many folks don't want the delay and will use a purchased queen, but at $40 a pop I stopped going that route this year.
"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."      
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Offline gibb

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Re: Took apart a hive today
« Reply #2 on: June 15, 2017, 07:59:18 am »
No kidding, I have a queen on hand that I bought  for $45 but have another hive that I may need to use her on. Had at least 3 swarms with one for sure with a new queen and one that is in the process of re-queening.
Finally the weather has improved and the bees have settled down.
I had wanted to go to 10 hives but not in a week.