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Comment by Rob Shepler on May 26, 2012 at 8:14pm

Ah, the cutout.

 

I really learned a lot working with Paul McCarty. He is very patient and works slowly and carefully cutting out comb. He has a bee vacuum made from two buckets with offset holes and he uses very little suction in order to not hurt the girls. He will suck a few bees then cut a bit, then go back and suck a few more. We worked from the bottom up.

 

We found no brood, it appears to have swarmed a few times this year and left them queen less. Noble Apiaries out of Dixon, CA got me a Carnolian queen overnight. I thought it was best to provide a mated queen right away instead of putting in a frame of eggs from another hive and letting them raise one, the population was on the decline.

 

Paul suggested using some hardware cloth shaped into a C and stapled onto the top bar. It really made attaching the comb to the bars very easy, just push it on and go. I did make a pattern to cut the comb to, so it fits right into the hive. The comb is a little wobbly on the bar, but I think given time they will attach it to the top bar.

 

Paul is a very good beekeeper and very smart about bees. I would tackle any cutout with him! Glad I got the chance to see him in action, hope I get to again.

Comment by Ralph Ketter on May 26, 2012 at 7:44pm

Thanks Rob, it looks like it would be just the thing for a swarm up to about 15' off the ground.  How did the cutouts go last weekend?

I decided to sign up as a "maybe" for the Michael Bush seminar.  I will have just returned from a trip to Alabama (flying or driving?)so I don't know if I will feel up to doing it.

I talked to Ken Hayes yesterday.  He still plans on having our nucs near the end of June.  Any later and I may investigate if I can combine getting the nuc in connection with traveling back from the Bush seminar.

Comment by Rob Shepler on May 26, 2012 at 6:30pm

I made a swarm retriever bucket with a 10 pole attached. It is available for group use should any of us be lucky enough to get a warm call!

 

 It looks something like this http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Hipps-Swarm-Retriever/producti...

 

I am happy to bring it down from Mayhill and help you catch your first swarm.

Comment by Rob Shepler on May 23, 2012 at 5:29am

Welcome to Travis our new member! Tell us a bit about yourself. Hope you are not too near the fires in the Gila.....

Comment by Rob Shepler on May 22, 2012 at 10:14am

Bee Weaver is still taking orders by phone, don't know how long though as it is getting hot! Laura is a very nice lady and she can be reached at 866-547-3376.

Comment by Diana Calkins on May 22, 2012 at 9:09am

Just checked out the BeeWeaver site, and they are sold out for 2012.

Comment by Rob Shepler on May 20, 2012 at 5:40am

Looks like BeeWeaver out of Texas is still shipping package bees. http://www.beeweaver.com/BeeWeaver-Package-Bees-2012.html 

They got a couple of very good reviews from an NMBKA facebook posting, thinking about a couple........

Comment by Rob Shepler on May 18, 2012 at 9:49am

Sangre De Cristo, it is a Yahoo group of Northern New Mexico beekeepers whom I think Les and Heather Crowder are a part of. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/SDCBeekeepers/

Some good stuff!

Comment by Diana Calkins on May 18, 2012 at 9:11am

Rob, what does the acronym SDC stand for?  I'd like to check it out.

Comment by Rob Shepler on May 18, 2012 at 5:28am

I don’t' know if everyone saw this posting from the SDC but I think it is worth reposting. Someone else’s trouble with top bar standards.....

 

Yes there are reasons for standardizations...

I experienced building a top bar hive with a friend and getting a nuc from Heather and Les and having to cut the comb down to fit our design.

 Wasn't fun :(

I believe the Les hive design ("standard" in these N NM parts) is on the SDC website.

 

Oh hard lessons,

 

Mac

On May 17, 2012, at 8:58 PM, "ozbarnes" a title="blocked::mailto:ozbarnes@aol.com" href="mailto:ozbarnes@aol.com">ozbarnes@aol.com> wrote:

 

 

Just thought I'd give everyone a heads up on the nightmare my bee buddy and I had today splitting a hive from one size top bar hive to a different size (standard) top bar hive box...
First off we were splitting a hive that is narrow, but taller than the standard top bar hive, 14" wide by 10 1/2" deep..( One I will never ever recommend because the comb is fragile from the weight of the comb on such a narrow top bar and deep hive box the bees always glue the comb to the sides of the box, and there is not enough room to manage the hive, not to mention that today if it had gotton a bit warmer the comb would have broken off, as it was, today the comb was quite bendy and we did the split at 5:00pm)......anyway.... We were fitting those bars into a 21" wide 8 1/2-9" deep hive... The only way to do this was to pull a short bar out with bees comb brood etc, carefully sandwich and wire it onto a 21" bar...... And than... Horrors or all horrors we had to cut the bottoms off the comb...... I hope you NEVER have to experience this EVER! Cutting thru larva, brood, honey, nectar Is horrendous, nasty, work, you have to go fast, and you have really really pissed off bees everywhere, we tried to go slow, but the bees were mad... Probably because of the smell of squished brood... We also had to be extremely careful with the capped queen cell.......
Good luck with yours
Wendy and Rhonda

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