I've been really nervous about my hives swarming. I just went through my 8 rooftop mega hives which took all day and found no swarm cells. About a month ago, I opened up the brood nest placing foundationless starter strips frames in while moving brood up. (A Michael Bush thing). It's really working so far. I pulled off another 50 pounds of honey to open up the supers to give them more room as well. (An Oliver Frank thing). I also managed to spot all the queens in each hive. I've started the practice of taking the frame with the queen and placing it in a "safe house" nuc while doing my inspections. It helps me to relax more knowing I'm not going to accidentally roll her and I can pick up the inspection pace as well. Now I have another 8 in Saratoga to do. I'm going to need more beer. :thumbsup:
I like the idea of placing the queen in a safe situation while doing the inspection. Sounds like you got it going your way good job thanks for sharing:thumbsup:
Yeah I like that 'safehouse nuc' idea too! Easy enough to bring a little nuc along for a big inspection day.
a snip... An Oliver Frank thing tecumseh: how is OD? I must have several hundred pounds of his old bee journal here. <something of a story there.
Jack you're hanging out at the wrong bar!!:lol::rolling::drinks::rolling::lol: That is a good idea to keep the queen safe, just be sure she gets BACK inside the original hive too.
He's as feisty as ever. We have a swarm catching contest on a Beesource thread in which he's in the lead and lets us all know about it daily.
Funny you should mention that. Just yesterday I placed the "queen frame" in my nuc. When I was all done, I took the frame out and looked for her before I put it back. No where on the frame. I looked in the nuc and she was walking along the side of the wall with some nurses. Glad I checked!
That is what would worry me. And I still have trouble telling queen from drones. I am so glad I did my cutout. My nucs are arriving on April 28 - after flow is mostly over... GRRRRRR. Gypsi
