# Now I have 11



## oblib (Oct 28, 2011)

I never moved the packages from the front of my garage where I stacked them 2 weeks ago after installing 10 packages and becoming a beekeeper.

Today I get a knock on the door, guy asks if I'm a beekeeper. He knows of no other beek in town but saw my packages. Seems he was called when a tree had to be cut down because it was totally rotten and had bees in it. He was able to have the trunk moved to a friends farm and closed all entrances but one and started planning on how to get them out. 

Well that was two weeks ago and today became "Today or Spray" and still having no idea how to get them out he asked if I would help. He would provide all the tools and I would get all the bees, comb, and honey. I agreed.

That was 8 hrs ago and we just finished. Turns out it was about a 20in wide hole in the middle of tree running about 9ft from top to bottom. Completely full of comb and pissed off bees. Seems they don't like chainsaws and knives taken to their home.

On all 9 frame mediums, we stopped putting honey in frames at 2 boxes and ran out of non-drone brood 2 boxes after that. then we filled 2, 5gal buckets with honey filled comb. Finally got the lid on the hive after putting a 5th box of frames on top. After pushing them with heavy smoke for 15 minutes we still had 3 inches of bees on top that just couldn't get into 4 boxes.

Left the hive open and sitting on the spot the trunk had been sitting. Will pick it up at 6am and bring it home. Never saw the queen but they were fanning hard from the top and bottom so I hope we got her at some point.

Once again I had forgot the gloves so I took about 15 stings to one hand and 10 to the other. One hand as big as a balloon now and the other not swollen at all. TBH I may just be excited about my first cutout but I really think there are more bees in this hive than my other 10 combined at this point.


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## Aerindel (Apr 14, 2012)

Awesome. Too bad you don't have a video of it.


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## oblib (Oct 28, 2011)

Just got them home. Had at least a pound of bees clinging to front of hive. Entire front of the bottom medium was covered 2-3 bees deep and a softball sized cluster hanging from the overhang of roof on front of hive. 40 degrees out so they never moved to break clusters but they buzzed to let me know they didnt like me moving them.

This afternoon when its warmer I'll get them on a regular bottom.


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## oblib (Oct 28, 2011)

Never did open them. Today it hit 70 and sunny so I moved to a regular bottom and looked for queen/egg/brood. Found no eggs or open brood. Was getting worried then on next to last frame I found 2 capped emergency cells. So if they just got capped I have around 8 days until they emerge. Guess I should just let them be for 2 weeks then look to see if they emerged.

Sound about right?


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

sounds right to me, cool story!


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## oblib (Oct 28, 2011)

Maybe I just suck at finding the queen. Was watching them today and it seems to me there is a fair amount of pollen being brought in. Would they do that just because they have capped queen cells or is it more likely that there is now some open brood in the hive they need to feed? There would be no open brood left from the cutout.


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## wildforager (Oct 4, 2011)

If they have queen cells, they'll still be working.


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## JBees (Feb 9, 2010)

wildforager said:


> If they have queen cells, they'll still be working.


Looks like you could make several splits from that bunch of bees.


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## oblib (Oct 28, 2011)

I know I could prob get splits off this. But my daughter, who bought 3 of our 10 packages, wants honey this year if possible. This cutout gives us the best chance of getting it so I might steal some brood from time to time but no splits.


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## oblib (Oct 28, 2011)

Both cells were open today. Looked like both emerged and had to fight it out. Both had neat round holes in the end of the cell. The colony has filled every single cell in the hive with nector or pollen so I gave them another box and will check in 2 weeks to see if the virgin got mated and is laying.

May be back to 10 hives soon. One of them had no open brood at all that I could find and 5 cells spread across as many frames. A month with no queen laying is gonna be really hard on that new package. We must have rolled her or something last week


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## oblib (Oct 28, 2011)

Couldn't find any eggs/brood this weekend (on the cutout hive) but, it was completely cloud covered and with my eyes I probably wouldn't see any without full sun over my shoulder. 

Also, got a swarm off the side of a house on Friday afternoon. Was very rough brick and I had to brush them into my box. This got me 5 stings lol. One to each hand, one to each forearm, and one to the chin. Seems they wanted to keep it all even from side to side. Thats 12 hives now.

The brushing did damage/kill some bees so to be safe I gave them a frame with some eggs and young larva. Stuffed the entrance with grass but I guess not tight enough because within 90 minutes they had it open enough to get out. By Saturday morning all the grass was out and they were foraging. I will move them from my swarm box to a regular bottom today and look to see if they made a queen cell.

Was a busy weekend. Sunday got another call. Another swarm had arrived at that same house but by the time I got there they had moved into a hole in the side of house. I set up a trapout and hopefully that will be #13 in a few weeks.


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