# Cutout Yesterday



## PovertyFarms (Jun 5, 2013)

A friend of mine and I attempted a tree cutout today. Both of us are first year
ignoramuses, so there is no telling if we were successful yet. 

Please chime in if we did something wrong or could have done it better.

The hive entrance would have probably killed the bees this winter due to damage
from a recent storm. It was in a hollowed out hackberry tree about 20 feet up. 
The tree broke off just above the hive entrance, exposing the entrance to snow/rain, etc.

We cut down the tree and then tried to figure out where the comb started by
cutting off chunks from the bottom. Of course, it was lower than we thought, and
we ended up cutting into bees. Knuckleheads that we are.

we shook bees down onto a sheet next to a readied hive box, and they marched
right in. Several sections had lots of bees, then we cut lengthwise down the
main log and opened it up. Then we trimmed sections of comb to fit frames and
used rubber bands to attach to frames.

I never saw the queen, so that was disappointing... When we were done, most of
the bees were in the new hive body with a few bearded on teh front.

Did we get remotely close to doing this right? Will putting the brood and honey
in the hive box convince them to stay? a lot of bees were hanging around one piece of log and wouldn't leave, so I put it by the entrance to the new hivebody.

Why are they hanging around that piece? Is that a problem?

I took a taste of honey from some trimmings, and it tasted like apricots.
Amazing.


----------



## Northwest PA Beekeeper (Mar 28, 2012)

Sounds like you did pretty good.

Kind of late to be messing with a tree now, (but like you said, with the damage to the tree, winter would have done them in anyhow) but I guess they still have a few months to get things organized and get honey built up. I hope most of the honey you feed back to the bees.

As long as you put most of the brood into frames, the bees should stay. (And with them marching into the hive that sounds good.)

Kind of hard to find the queen when working with a mess like that. My only thought of the group of bees staying around the one piece of log is possibly the queen is there. If the group is still clustered up when you get back to check, gather them up in a cardboard box and dump them into the hive.

I hope they survive the winter for you after all that work!


----------



## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

You stand a decent chance of them making the winter if you feed the heck out of them. you defiantly want to feed all the honey back to them. You may want to begin making candy blocks.

I just did a cutout yesterday. very close to your location Northwest Pa. beekeeper they were in a building that is about to be demolished. I would have liked to wait until spring. but it is a now or never thing. I still have other hive to cut out there. 

What really amazed me was how little honey the bees had stored in that hive. maybe 12 to 15 pounds, and 70% was crystalized. a ton of bees, and plenty of brood but way less stores than usual for this time of year. With a total of 7 hives coming from this building I guess I better make some candy too.


----------



## PovertyFarms (Jun 5, 2013)

Thanks guys!

I didn't keep any honey, other than a couple bites of comb that I trimmed to make pieces fit into frames, otherwise I left everything for them.


----------



## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

You did one thing wrong... and it was huge.
No friggin pics. What the heck.........


----------



## PovertyFarms (Jun 5, 2013)

I tried, and when I hit upload, it always showed a red x... Even resized them to under 200K...

Sorry


----------



## D Semple (Jun 18, 2010)

Won't let you post pictures till you have 10 posts I believe, you may be a spam bot!

What part of our beautiful state are you in?

Some finesse management of your new colony:

- If you still see bees tonight gathered on that section of log, open up your hive and shake or brush them in, that is where your queen is.
- Don't put them to close to another hive, this late in the season they will abscond on you. 
- You can overfeed them if they don't want to draw out new comb, giving the queen no place to lay. Feed, but start slow for the first couple of weeks. 
- If you have small hive beetles around rubber banding honey comb is not a good thing and will spread the bees to thin. Better to save it and feed it back to them in another month.

Good luck.


Don


----------



## PovertyFarms (Jun 5, 2013)

well, heck, I guess I will burn through a few posts and earn my pic posting privileges...


----------



## PovertyFarms (Jun 5, 2013)

Well, heck, I guess I better earn those pic posting privileges...


----------



## PovertyFarms (Jun 5, 2013)

One for the money


----------



## PovertyFarms (Jun 5, 2013)

Two for the show


----------



## PovertyFarms (Jun 5, 2013)

Three to get ready


----------



## PovertyFarms (Jun 5, 2013)

And four to go


----------



## PovertyFarms (Jun 5, 2013)

Couple more ought to do it


----------



## PovertyFarms (Jun 5, 2013)

If the 10-post count is correct.


----------



## PovertyFarms (Jun 5, 2013)

nope, it still won't let me


----------



## Cleo C. Hogan Jr (Feb 27, 2010)

Poverty Farms...

Check the file format of the picture. jpg works best for me.

Also check size. I can't remember the largest size it will accept, but, it is not large.

cchoganjr


----------



## djei5 (Apr 24, 2011)

If you had eggs and newly formed larvae. check in three or four days, if no queen cells, there is a really good chance you got her.


----------

