Ted Wout wrote:
>
> Ian Watson wrote:
> >>Ok, Thanks Paul and others.  One more question: when using the bait/cone
> method, do you include a queen with the frame or frames of brood, and how
> many frames also?<<
>
> The removal that I did this spring was with a few frames of brood that
> included swarm cells.  Until the swarm cells didn't produce a live queen, I
> didn't have an idea of how well the bees might be attracted to the bait
> hive.  There were always some bees hanging around the cone all night long
> and the following day.  After I realized that the swarm cells that I
> included in the hive were not going to produce a queen, I introduced a
> mated queen.  Then the bees really took to the bait hive.  There were never
> bees hanging around the cone after that.
>
> Based upon that experience, I would say that you should have a laying queen
> in your bait hive.  Use a weak hive or one that you just started and are
> sure that is queen-right.
 
Ted's deduction is correct.  The bait hive should be queenright and
functional. Otherwise it isn't an adequate enticement to the displaced
workers from the colony in the wall.  The cone method displaces the vast
majority of workers from their colony, and having no better option
available, they drift into the bait hive.  With this method the queen
from the colony in the wall rarely (if ever) leaves through the cone.
The work force is locked out and goes elsewhere but the queen and a few
die-hard workers remain to the bitter end.  Thus it's important for the
bait hive to have a working queen or else you'll just end up with a
collection of queenless workers even if you can entice them to go in.
 
You only need to include enough brood to entice the bees to stay.
European honeybees are very reluctant to abandon brood. A single frame
of brood in various stages with attending bees and a laying queen is
actually enough.
 
This discussion raises an interesting point.  Since this method doesn't
recover the queen from the colony in the wall, it would not be ideal in
the case where you find a colony that has a documentable history of many
consecutive years uninterrupted occupancy in a mite infested area.  Why?
Because it would be really nice to retrieve a feral queen with such a
survival history.  I recently picked up a swarm that issued from such a
location.  It's much too early to tell if they are mite resistant but
I'm going to leave them untreated and see what happens.
Not expecting much but keeping my fingers crossed.
 
Michael Reddell
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http://www.hotcity.com/~mwr