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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 9 Jul 2001 11:58:29 -0500
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Douglas Gibbs writes:
"I will drill a hole in the back of the box and then force the bees to go
through the hive to get out. I am hoping the queen will then move into the
hive.....
The second group of bees....remove the inner wall. This will destroy the
integrity of what they have built.....I am hoping they will then swarm...."

Here is my opinion on the plan:

Both these plans are probably doomed to failure from the start.  The queen will
almost certainly not come out into the hive under the circumstances described
because there will be no incentive to do so.  Her brood nest will still be
inside the wall.  The only way it might possibly work (and still might not) is
to put a one-way exit cone over the knot hole so no bees can re-enter the
wall.  It might the be possible at some point that the queen might also come
out, but still unlikely.  A better choice would be to have a nucleus colony
with its own queen in the box, and have the one-way exit so the bees exiting
the wall have to join the bees in the nucleus colony.

In the second case, the bees may possibly swarm or abscond if you disturb the
nest enough, but then you'd be just as likely to lose them.  It would be a
safer bet (if you want to use them to start a colony) to cut out the brood
comb and place it into frames, held in place by string or rubber bands to allow
the bees to attach it to the frames, put as many bees from the colony into the
box with the brood comb as possible, then set the box as close as possible to
where the original colony was so the remainder of the bees can join.

Bees are pretty stubborn sometimes about keeping things the way they are unless
you take pretty drastic measures that they can't undo.  There are probably
other options too, but these are the things I would try if it were my project.

On the other hand, you would learn a lot just by trying what you think will
work and see how it turns out.  Experience is a great teacher.  Best wishes
for success.

Layne Westover
College Station, Texas

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