# Worst luck at cut outs (or, are we just that bad at cut outs?)



## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

I had that same thing happen. Two weeks before the removal, I could hear at least three queens piping. The day of the cutout, no queen, no brood to speak of. Honey, pollen and drones were plentiful though.
Pics next time would help.


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## Gilligan (May 8, 2013)

Mr.Beeman said:


> I had that same thing happen. Two weeks before the removal, I could hear at least three queens piping. The day of the cutout, no queen, no brood to speak of. Honey, pollen and drones were plentiful though.
> Pics next time would help.


Yeah, we meant to take pics, but once in the thick of the matter that gets forgotten easily.

Thought about it after we were on the road, I should have at least grabbed a pic of the aftermath as it would have spelled it easier. I'll "draw" something up in a sec when I get to the office.


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## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

I should have your bad luck! What is this your 2nd cutout and 3rd swarm? Cry me a river, you had to give your free bees brood. With your bad luck you probably already have a mated swarm virgin who will be laying in 2 days!

Good luck and keep up the stories.


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## Gilligan (May 8, 2013)

Saltybee said:


> I should have your bad luck! What is this your 2nd cutout and 3rd swarm? Cry me a river, you had to give your free bees brood. With your bad luck you probably already have a mated swarm virgin who will be laying in 2 days!
> 
> Good luck and keep up the stories.


Lol, this is definitely one of those post that make me wish we had "like" buttons.


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## D Semple (Jun 18, 2010)

Gilligan,

There are advantageous times to do removals, i.e. within a day or two after a swarm, just prior to swarming is good, a month after they have swarmed, etc. 

Times that are not advantageous, too early in the spring, 1 to 3 weeks after they have swarmed, during dearths, to late in the season, etc.

Book and observe your removals ahead of time, you'll learn to tell what going on inside by what you are seeing on the outside and can schedule what's best for the colony's survival.



Is Gilligan your real name?

Don


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>But what gives with this hive?!!??!?!!??
>We are completely perplexed with our only rationale is that they swarmed, virgin hatched, killed the other queens, went on mating flight and never made it back?

My guess it swarmed a week ago or more. The virgin emerged and hasn't mated yet so you have no brood yet, but probably a virgin queen in the colony. The downside of that is that they are very flighty and like to hide and it's unlikely (though possible) you got her in the cutout.


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## Gilligan (May 8, 2013)

Here is a pic from the cut out to give you a basic idea. Home owner didn't want to get TOO close. 









Basically the spaces above and to the left (and right as you can see) were completely void of any real comb.


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## Gilligan (May 8, 2013)

D Semple said:


> Is Gilligan your real name?
> 
> Don


Negative. Nickname from high school as I wore that style hate quite often.


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## Gilligan (May 8, 2013)

Michael Bush said:


> >But what gives with this hive?!!??!?!!??
> >We are completely perplexed with our only rationale is that they swarmed, virgin hatched, killed the other queens, went on mating flight and never made it back?
> 
> My guess it swarmed a week ago or more. The virgin emerged and hasn't mated yet so you have no brood yet, but probably a virgin queen in the colony. The downside of that is that they are very flighty and like to hide and it's unlikely (though possible) you got her in the cutout.


We wondered that as well a bit during the cut out.

Would they have clustered around her? None really did, but she could have run. As I said, they weren't very runny, not defensive, they were pretty calm and that had me wondering the whole time. So virgin seems right. Hell she might have been out getting laid while were tearing things up.


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## Gilligan (May 8, 2013)

Saltybee said:


> I should have your bad luck! What is this your 2nd cutout and 3rd swarm? Cry me a river, you had to give your free bees brood. With your bad luck you probably already have a mated swarm virgin who will be laying in 2 days!
> 
> Good luck and keep up the stories.


Oh, and did I mention that we stopped and looked at a trap out on the way home? Knot hole in wood siding of a house. Trap out, walk away let them clean up after. $300 bucks.

Originally I was calling her back about a cut out of an abandoned house, but we drug our feet and she had demolished the house before we could get out there. But her sister had some living in her house down the road. 

If it makes you feel any better, I got stung examining the trap out location, then I rubbed the stinger in and stung myself a second time with it!


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Would they have clustered around her? 

They usually don't with a virgin.


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## Gilligan (May 8, 2013)

Michael Bush said:


> >Would they have clustered around her?
> 
> They usually don't with a virgin.


Must have been the case.


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## Gilligan (May 8, 2013)

Hate to do it Salty, but we are some of the luckiest sumsa*****es to ever do removals!

My buddy checked the hive today and found fresh comb with eggs in it.

Seems we randomly vacuumed up another queen in this cut out. Pure chance as we weren't even very careful with the cut out... More than the tree removal but not like we would have been if we thought there was a healthy queen in there.

Rawr!!


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## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

Sorry to hear of your bad luck. You obviously live in an area where the bees area way too swarmy. You can keep catching them if you want, but I would not want them myself.
That's my story.


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## Gilligan (May 8, 2013)

Saltybee said:


> Sorry to hear of your bad luck. You obviously live in an area where the bees area way too swarmy. You can keep catching them if you want, but I would not want them myself.
> That's my story.


Yeah, it's becoming a nuisance. We started and didn't have any bees a month ago. One Craig's list ad and a call to animal control and now we have 6 hives. We got two calls yesterday about removals and we still have two paid trapouts on the books to do!... How many boxes do these ppl think we have?!


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## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

Not as many as you will. You know you can buy those boxes? Turn that cut out money around. The run will stop, will you last that long?


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## Gilligan (May 8, 2013)

Saltybee said:


> Not as many as you will. You know you can buy those boxes? Turn that cut out money around. The run will stop, will you last that long?


We have a few still hanging around.


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