My hive split took!

[werecat]

Originally Posted by TastyofHasty

Geez, Werecat, you're sure TALKING like a beekeeper!! Say that again in plain English?

LOL ok, the bee hive has some boxes of comb that you leave filled with honey, pollen and baby bees for the bees to use. If you try to take more of their boxes for yourself the honey bee colony is in danger of starving. the bees need an absolute minimum of 3 boxes of comb of the size I have in my healthy strong colony. my healthy colony actually has 4 boxes so technically 1 extra box that my mum is going bonkers for me to harvest the honey out of, but this is why I'm going to leave it. Each box has 10 frames of comb in it. From what I am reading now, if I want to split my hive I need 3 frames of comb set in a smaller box called a nuc (for nucleus) box with 2 additional empty frames and a little container with a honeybee queen you can purchase from a honeybee breeder. Since the box I would be taking the frames of comb from holds 10 frames that means I could possibly split that box into 3 new colonies if I am careful and use purchased queens.

I would be willing to bet that the reason my hive split was because of 3 big old boo-boos

1. I didn't put the newly started colony far enough away from the first one so most of the bees just went back to the original hive.
2. I didn't keep the bees locked in the new hive for a couple of days to let them get extabilished and begin building new comb.
3. I was hoping the nurse bees would raise their own queen from one of the queen egg cells on the frame when I would have had more success if I had purchased a healthy adult queen to add to the new hive.

does that make more sense?

[TastyofHasty]

Okay, now you say it like that, very informative! But you should be proud you're talking and thinking like a beekeeper, WC And I would've been with you, hoping for your own home-bred queen. Too bad they didn't raise one! Maybe they only do that in their own time when they feel like it??

I can see your Mom's point, too; home-produced honey is a desirable thing, not to mention the beeswax ... I can remember eating honey in the comb, wonderful! ... drool!!! So yeah, I see your Mom's point of view. But you are wise to keep your bees healthy, everything in good time, and all that.

How much does a "nuc" cost, anyway? I wonder about these things.

[lmehaffey]

Nuc prices vary according to region. Here in Alabama they range from 100 -120 dollars for a four-frame nuc with a viable queen and all stages of bee development present.A queen can cost 20-30 dollars, although I almost paid 125 dollars last season for a Minnesota Hygenic queen (I really wanted those genetics in my stock - and I may spring for the queen this year).

[TastyofHasty]

Another question, just wondering, how do they mail the queen, all alone inside the nuc? Poor young thing, if so. Probably wondering in her queenly way, where all her drones and tenders are.

[lmehaffey]

Queens are shipped in a small box, with 3-4 attendants and enough food (a soft candy mixture) to survive on for a week or so. A nuc is a fully-functioning, albeit small, hive - queen, et al., are all in place and working. Installing a new queen in a functioning hive or nuc is isually simple - can be tricky, though, if there are queen cells already in the hive or if the old queen is still in the hive (these have to be either removed for other uses or destroyed). Bees are fascinating and will create endless opportunities for study. Like I tell my fellow beeks: all the college degrees I have did not teach me as much as a single year of beekeeping!

[werecat]

I have sent an email to the local high shool woods class teacher along with the .pdf plans to see if he can recomend a student that might be willing to build some nuc boxes for me for barter. Hopefully my baking skills will come in handy once again. freight on shipping wooden wear is just scary! better I can find some hungry young person to build them for me.

[TastyofHasty]

If he CAN build them right, he'll have learned something valuable his life long.

One webpage I looked at was bragging about how they used thicker wood which was much better for the bees ... not that I remember which page it was, but they wanted $400+ for their beehives. And the wood wasn't THAT thick. I think it was on eBay.

[werecat]

Originally Posted by TastyofHasty

If he CAN build them right, he'll have learned something valuable his life long.

One webpage I looked at was bragging about how they used thicker wood which was much better for the bees ... not that I remember which page it was, but they wanted $400+ for their beehives. And the wood wasn't THAT thick. I think it was on eBay.

LOL If I could afford to pay that much for the hive, I wouldn't be worried about eventually selling the honey. Oh yeah, some places are just way to proud of their work to be affordable. Maybe I could offer one of my splits if the fellow that builds the hives for me would like to keep bees himself.

[TastyofHasty]

Is this a nuc box?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BEEKEEPING-C...item1c1f57d422

There are 4 days left but the bid is now only $9.99.... with $22.03 shipping, not too bad, why doesn't he include frames?

[lmehaffey]

Originally Posted by TastyofHasty

If he CAN build them right, he'll have learned something valuable his life long.

One webpage I looked at was bragging about how they used thicker wood which was much better for the bees ... not that I remember which page it was, but they wanted $400+ for their beehives. And the wood wasn't THAT thick. I think it was on eBay.

$400.00 is absolutely unreasonable for a complete hive -- even the fancy English garden hives with the copper topped gable covers are only about 250.00 in the standard catalogues. Most folks I know build their own. I don't have the tools or skills myself, so I buy from local beeks (met through bee clubs, etc.). I pay around 80.00 for a complete hive and 10.00 per super beyond that. In other news, important to no on but me: I passed my Apprentice Level exam in our state's Master Beekeeper program this afternoon. Only three more years and three more exams to go!