Queen Caging Difficulties & Robbing Honey

All of my queens are now caged unless one of them has a distant relative by the name of "Houdini" as I have had atleast one of these in the past.  Two beekeepers have reported their queen flying off when they tried to cage her.  One reported the next day they went back into the hive to find their queen.  So they successfully captured her in her queen cage.  So if your queen flies away, just put everything back together and try again the next day.  Unless she gets eaten by a bird, chances are pretty good she'll find her way back into the hive.  Queens rarely abandon their young!!  One of my queens was unmarked and I thank Ann Johnson for helping me find her.  This particular queen was an Italian that swarmed into one of my queenless, Carniolan hives.  It was difficult to find her but she was on the last frame.  The queen caging demo went great today!  The honeyflow is over now and when it gets cold, the bees will begin eating the honey so start robbing your hives - taking one frame at a time and tapping the bees off, into the hive.  Carry the frame over to a Rubbermaid tote that is a good 20 to 30 feet away from the hive.  Brush any hitchhiking bees off the frames as you walk toward the tote.  Keep the tote covered with a lid and try to keep bees from entering the tote when you lift the lid to place the honey frames inside the tote. 

Queen Caging Demonstration

Any of my beekeeping students over the past four years are invited to join me for a queen caging demonstration this Sunday, August 11th at 6PM, weather permitting.  The location is 1709 Carr Ave. in Aurora Subdivision (Across from the Tanana Valley State Fair Grounds).  Turn East on Carr Ave. - 3rd house on the right. (old, 2 story log house with a tan colored shop to the left of the house).

"Successful Colonies" and the Best Corks for Caging Queens, In My Opinion!

Hi Dawn,
Can I ask what you mean by a "successful colonies?" Does this refer to the amount of honey produced or did you actually have whole colonies that died? I have two hives (boxes) with 80% bare foundation frames when I started. I probably still have 8 sides (4 frames total) that are just barely drawn out, from the two boxes. Is this usual or does it indicate a poor producing colony? I have yet to put any super on because of this, and now think I might not need this. I am planning on caging my queen this weekend. Are you going to do any demo? What do you use for the cork - a cork or wax for the queen box? Or can I just do duct tape. Still need to read a bit as this seems so soon!

Hello Marin, I use a piece of wine cork.  I lay a cork down on a cutting board and slice it like a cucumber into about ½ inch width disks.  Then I cut the disks in half.  One of the halves should fit perfectly into the queen cage entrance (hole).  I consider “successful colonies” those that produce anywhere from 5 to 12 gallons of honey.  4 frames left to be drawn-out isn’t bad.  Do you have any honey?  What I would do is put the super boxes on anyway and when you have extracted all your honey, you will put the VERY STICKY FRAMES back into the hives.  Once the bees clean these frames up, they will consolidate all the honey into one smaller area and cap it.  After you rob the very last of the honey, you can feed the bees sugar water and they will draw-out any frames that are bare.  This should all be complete by October at the very latest so that you can wrap up the season by shop vacuuming the bees and storing your equipment in a dry, cold place for next year.  Please don’t hesitate to ask more questions.  Oh, and it will take 21 days before all the eggs and larva are hatched out so in 21 days, we will be into September when there is little to no food for the bees to forage. 

J Dawn

THIS IS THE WEEK TO CAGE QUEENS!!

Only 2 More Weeks Until Science-Based Art Classes Begin!

See Class List Below!

Read, Write, Publish! (3 spaces left) Mondays 9:30-11:30AM

Soar Through the Solar System (5 spaces left) Tuesdays 12-2PM 

Primary Science (2 spaces left) Tuesdays 2:30 - 4:30PM

Primary Science (Full) Wednesdays 9:30 - 11:30PM

Creative/Essay Writing (Full) Wednesdays 12-2PM

Literature-Based Art (5 spaces left) Thursdays 12PM - 2PM
Intermediate/High School Art (2 spaces left) Fridays 10:30AM-1:30PM
Marine Marvels (Full) Fridays 2-4PM

 

Honeyflow Suffering from Drought!

Today, I robbed the last of my seven hives.  Despite the beautiful weather, I was very disappointed to find several hives have not been very successful.  Pioneer beekeeper, Charles Gray, suggested this is because the flowers aren't producing as much nectar as usual without the rain they so desperately need.  I will be extracting honey for the next couple days!

Caging Queens

So the date I plan to cage my queens this season is around August 10th depending on the weather.  It looks like I will have four out of seven successful colonies this season.  How are your colonies doing? 

What's Killing the Bees?

Thank you to Ginny Kinney for this article!

http://qz.com/107970/scientists-discover-whats-killing-the-bees-and-its-worse-than-you-thought/