What A Mess!!!

well here's something interesting um I thought I noticed a couple bees on the side there and I was looking at the side of this one uh how about that massive swarm I goodness gracious was that was this an abort and they came back under the hive this is where the uh the naysayers or the people that don't like screen bottom boards kick in um that is comb I see comb under here so they are already or that oh this is gonna be a mess and very likely a mated Queen is laying in there if they're drawing comb out like that oh goodness this is gonna be a nightmare uh definitely a first uh now I'm looking at my other colonies to see if no uh okay I've got any more craziness going on here nope okay so I gotta figure out what I'm gonna do with this I guess I'm gonna try oh boy because there's comb in there I don't want to damage the comb I mean I can just reach in there and grab all these bees and gently put them in a box um they're thinking this is their new home underneath this hive and that's a problem uh of course if I smoke them they're all going to go on the ground there I guess I'm just gonna have to go get a box set it up next to me here and then slowly and painfully start grabbing these putting them in the box and setting the comb in there I'm gonna have to go get some rubber bands and some empty frames mature hmm I wonder how much comb is in there I mean that's that that is a that is a good ball of bees right there because it they're all the way up through the wood here so let's get to it well if there's one thing beekeeping has taught me it is to expect the unexpected so uh we've got a giant ball of bees underneath this hive um I theorize a couple of things could have happened seems like the most logical one is I was pretty pretty sure this high was queenless found no signs of Life put a frame of eggs in here 12 days ago based on that time frame a virgin could have emerged and she's just now gone on her mating flights well she may have undershot the landing and landed underneath the board and of course you know thousands of bees followed her they then decided you know she's done with her mating flights she's made it and they now have decided that's their new home which is why they started drawing comb there so they've been here for a few days if that's the case uh well that is the case because there's drawn comb there so they generally don't do that until they decide this is our new home so that could be the case I'll know if I pull this comb out and there's eggs in it then that means I haven't made a queen and this giant ball of bees under here the other possibility is a swarm and then I don't know maybe they aborted and but didn't go back in the hive and landed underneath that doesn't seem as likely to me or just a swarm from another Colony just happened to land underneath this Colony that doesn't seem very likely or plausible either um so I'm kind of at a loss here uh my game plan and I'm winging this guys okay my game plan is to go through this Colony first pull these supers off get down into the the Deep box look for signs of Life do I see eggs do I see brood has a mated Queen successfully made it back in the hive um if that's the case great um I'm going to disassemble this Hive I will set it aside on my bench hopefully tomato Queens admit you know if she's in there she'll be fine and then I'm going to take my screen bottom board try to lift it up carefully and examine the comb if there's eggs in the comb then I have two made of Queens one in the hive one underneath the hive if there's no eggs are signs of Life In The Deep box but there are eggs in the comb underneath the box then I have one made of Queen underneath and a queenless colony I will then shake it either shake the bees into this Colony try to find the queen Mark her if I can and put her back in this Colony we'll be good to go if both are queen right then I'm going to take that cluster of bees underneath and I'm going to put them in a New Colony in a new spot over here in my apiary what's the other scenario if there are eggs and life in the hive here sorry I got a little bit of a chest cold and the comb underneath does not have any eggs in it then it appears maybe it's just a big ball of bees and I'll just shake those bees into the hive so I'm gonna have to assess as I go like I said I'm just kind of winging this this is a first for me I've not had a giant cluster ball of bees just decide that their new home is underneath an existing Colony so we're going to find out what's going on here I'm gonna go grab my bench all right I've got a tote here in case I need to put those bees in the tote so I can go get another box I've got a empty frame here in rubber bands so if that comb has brooder eggs in it I'm going to try to save it and rubber band it in this Frame but it's going to get real interesting here there may not be a whole lot of bees in these supers they may be all under here but again we're just gonna figure this thing out and uh figure it out as we go that's my game plan yeah this is mostly empty some bees up here not a ton I don't think that's like they just started drawing comb it's not they're not filling it no it's light we'll set this one aside now this absolutely has honey in it wow some of it's pretty dark being uh for it being um spring honey I'll show you here real quick they're still capping it gives you an idea foreign a little darker color there for sure probably going to be able to tell when I look in this box too how many bees are in here That's Heavy that is a heavy super that's probably 40 pounds maybe more all right see what we're looking at here is there any signs of life in this colony capped honey hey man my buddy Jason just showed up to help me so I'm recording one of my videos so that's all bee bread checking to see if there's any signs of Life In The Deep here I the more I'm looking I'm guessing no more bee bread bee bread food honey I'm guessing that was the queen that went out and she undershot her Landing let's see here more bee bread not seeing any signs of life yet oh now wait a minute oh boy uh we got a mated Queen in here I see eggs and I see three Queen cups so I'll bring you around here and show you in the camera but this Colony inside is Queen right come over to the side here so you can still see so I got a queen cup here I'll bring around show you on the camera but I was looking for the queen real quick see if I could spot her she's in here though nice single eggs bottom of those cells she's been on this frame in the past three days yeah but she wouldn't crawl out of the hype once she's in the hive Lane here I'm gonna go show the camera this so here's three cups right there Sam and then we got eggs in these cells right here so she's I figured she'd be on this frame she may be on the next one I'm gonna try to find her before I deal with all the bees underneath you're an inspiration there's another queen cup here so this I don't know this colony is pretty swarming so let's see here let's check out the next one and Bee bread I guess I'll pose this question for the experts once a queen starts laying in a hive she wouldn't go back on a mating flight again and then start laying weird we'll see how she could uh got underneath a hive after she's already been in here laying that makes sense to me see what this is it feels heavy too honey and be bread one frame so for oh yeah yeah I mean it makes sense that there's not a ton of brood in here she's just yeah she's just getting going what check this out well wait a minute no honey Let's see we got fresh comb there and just scanning for her I don't see her anywhere I don't see any eggs is it oh yeah more food no eggs there still have three more four more virgins that can emerge in this colony they're still swarming I had one yes so she can't be well if there's eggs he's been on that frame within the past three days so looking for any signs of life here no eggs to be on that other frame or she's in the bottom or side of the box which is very possible I've seen that happen afraid I really tried to try to spot her if I can not that one she's gotta be on that one she's yeah she's got to be on this one I mean let's take a close look again yeah she's not she wouldn't be marked and that's a question I posed for the for the season beekeepers um could have made a queen come in it's only partially mated start laying eggs and then go back out and miss her return flight landing I mean I thought once they started laying eggs in a hive they're in the hive so this just has me confused I don't see her come over here so what I think I want to do is so you could look so what you saw eggs on this one correct yeah there's eggs right there look in the black cells see him right there on the bottom nice single eggs so what I think I want to do is uh disassemble I mean or I mean remove this deep box set it on the bench here she's I if she's on this Frame I just don't see her um and then take carefully take that screen bottom board and try to lift it out and what I'm gonna have to do is I'm gonna have to go get another box because all signs point to a mated Queen in here so I don't want to if there's a mated Queen underneath I don't want to put all those bees in here and I got two mated Queens in here so what I want to do then is put the bees underneath in a new box um and see how that goes pretty calm bees I'll tell you that much I mean they're a little jittery on the uh on the comb I just don't see her and I just don't think she'd be on this frame with all the food on it I mean there's tons of frames of food in here so and then what I can always do is if I seal this Colony back up um I can come back here and say four or five days or even a week and check again for signs of life to make sure that they're not queenless that there is in fact a queen in here and that'll confirm it so that's the game plan right or wrong I mean I don't know this is a first for me it's reference pretty heavy a lot of food on it okay so I'm gonna go ahead and pause the video and I'm gonna go get another box so that I can put the bees underneath in that box so we'll be right back foreign I've got the Deep box pulled off hopefully I have a queen somewhere in here we're scanning we're scanning this for her now to make sure that she's nowhere on here and I see I mean I've already drawn comb underneath here it's just gonna be a mess we're just gonna have to make the best we can of it do you see her anywhere in here I mean she shouldn't be if you're looking there too give these bees a little bit of smoke I'm gonna send them some of them scattered I'm not seeing her anywhere it's like playing where's Waldo trying to find a needle in a haystack So the plan for this is to pick it up if we can without ruining a bunch of comb and maybe shake the bees over in this new box we have set up over there um do you mind holding holding the camera for me I'm gonna have Jason hold the camera for me bear with us here all right here you go brother let's see what happens got it okay all right so when I lift this up a little bit more try to try to get them off the sides here [Music] no no this is going to be a mess and it could be a little difficult to pry it I may have to use my hive tool here okay I got one side up I gotta get the other side here got the other side up trying to get around front oh boy are they attached or I can't tell what's happening so oh the comb is oh wow look at that and there's there's drone brood you got you got maybe 40 of them oh look at that look at that so she's been here a while so that is drawn come what a mess okay oh boy let's see here so what I'm gonna try to do is try to scrape off this comb um man I'd love to find the queen but that's going to be like a needle and a haystack uh and try to get some of that comb and maybe rubber band it in a frame or two and then I'm going to shake these bees off into the hive hoping that the hoping the queen is in there somewhere you don't happen to see the queen do you Jason okay all right let's try to get some of this comb right in here they've been here a while on the bottom right surprised I missed them that much or missed that much of them maybe I can it's my hive tool over there thanks I'm gonna try to uh carefully take this comb and put some of it into a frame here and if I spot the queen I'm going to grab her she tried to sting me so this is sometimes why I wear gloves she's not happy with me okay so I'm gonna try to we go grab the go grab the stand for me would you Jason I'm gonna try to pull this comb out and see if I can spot the queen on here somewhere okay thank you sir all right see if we can readjust this and get some of that comb off some angry bees here would you go grab the smoker for me please sir I'm gonna try to put this get some of this comb which obviously there's eggs in here can clearly see eggs what a hot mess do you see her anywhere I mean she very well could be on this I mean if I could find the queen this would make it a lot easier because then I wouldn't worry about hurting her thank you all right watch out bud so just trying to find a way to get this uh brood comb here I'm gonna make sure the Queen's Not underneath there I'm trying to find the best way to attach it with rubber bands here the bees will fix all the comb so if I can kind of get it clumped together here got one more big piece I'm going to try to fit in here and that'll be that then we'll have to scrape the rest of it which is a shame she's been laying for a while foreign there okay scan in there if you find her okay bring you guys over here and show you what I'm doing so I'm gonna end up rubber banding oh look right here right here we found her okay Mark and cage still got her where's the hype tool it's right here good eye where is she must have yep he spotted her though that was definitely her okay where'd she go you see her ah like a needle in the haystack oh we know she's here at least we know she's uh he's fine she had to have gone over here I'll keep an eye on her and I'll look over here it'd be really easy to pluck her off here if uh there she is right there yeah oh where'd she go oh crap is she on the grass yeah hang on on this piece of grass right here got her oh right on this leaf okay got her all right that makes it a whole lot easier so here I'll take that here sorry for the shaky footage get you back on the stand here yeah that makes the rest of this work super easy so here's our new Queen okay so I'm gonna go ahead and Mark her while Jason's working on cleaning up that comb mess and we may have another mated Queen over there again so regardless I am in a safe I'm still gonna rubber band this where did I put my uh can you give me that red pin they try to save that one see if we can fit that somewhere else thank you what do you want to do with this uh is that all honey scrape it off man yeah it's awesome and we'll try that okay we'll try to save we'll try to get all those bees in this box here once I get her Mark just wait for now yeah just wait for now to get her mark got it oh nice job spotting her she's a nice looking Queen looks Italian still here kind of squirmy all right and we'll let her just camp out there for a minute and dry out so let's get Where'd I put the rubber bands give me a couple of them rubber bands oh I have a bee that somehow got inside here so hang on oh yeah I would explain how I was wondering how she got in there it's been unzipped all time that was smart okay and the good news about this is I don't have to worry about hurting the queen now that we found her so um of course I want to hurt as few bees as I can but the Queen's the important one here okay okay sir try to maybe get this throw that out get this last one in here and invert it actually and then get this see if I can make room for this medium sized one here yeah perfect all right now they'll have a reason to stay here because they'll have brood in here so they won't want to they won't want to leave it somehow keep it from I wonder do I have is there another rubber band that I don't know if that'll stretch the full yeah I don't know if it will or not all right and then you can come back later and remove this rubber band it's not going to be the prettiest frame but it'll work and the bees will fix it it'll start drawing comb on these others too so yeah just go ahead and empty that and I'll shake all these bees in here try to get the clean in here so they'll start she should be dry enough and they'll start nasan offing and the flying bee should there she goes so she just went down in there and get the cover on and all these flying bees should start going in the hive oh yeah I was gonna put a where's that super can you go get me the one that's pretty light scoop the rest try to get uh let's take this sheet of foundation scoop these bees up and put them in the hive also thank you quickly I'm sure she's not on there okay sir not that they're going to be too concerned with uh drawing these out but you never know I'll leave this on for a while so here okay and then let's uh set this over here oh that's pretty sticky so I'm going to take this Frame of sheet of foundation here scoop up these bees and try to get all these stragglers in the hive you get them off here yeah I'll get are they they're a bunch over there oh my Lord okay yeah I forgot we still have a ton of bees in comb over here so I'm gonna try to shake those bees into this hive we'll have to cut that out with the hive tool Jason we might be able to put them in that tote and then transfer them over here [Music] [Music] okay still got a bunch of bees here okay so let's get that tote the smoker over there still I just want to give him a little pop this most all right and yeah the hive tool yeah now we're not worried about at least damage in the comb there's my I don't know if there's a way to get maybe put this underneath it and if you Slough them off maybe maybe put that lid because it's got that oh yeah yeah yeah I don't think the total fit and brewed on these they just Drew comb in between the four by fours I can't believe we found the queen in this that's unbelievable assistant back and forth back and forth some of this comb I just don't have a way to save it which is a shame but I really want to get the bees in here morning she's certainly laying well thank you what a mess should we scoop up any more over there the foundation over here there's definitely a ton of bees in there and that that brood is about to emerge it's gonna be a big Colony but man they just chose the wrong spot might have been a cast form that she got mated and came back I have no idea guys it's weird but whatever that's what bees do yeah okay thanks brother yeah I'll help you I got so we'll uh yeah so she's got to be um she's got to be in that deep Let's uh we need to do we scrape off the bottom of this yeah or do you have your okay I mean where's the hype tools over there no it must be over here it just happened I'll try here let's try to get that mess off if we can get on this side or the other side where's the smoker okay hey maybe several of them will just go in this colony and that's fine by me foreign foreign [Music] exclude or where's the entrance reducer did you find it is it over there somewhere we might check see if it's over there we gotta get that on find it so we should we should have a a lame Queen in here based on what we saw unless that queen left and went down all right sweat and I'll come back and check inside in a week or so just to look for signs of New Life holy moly that's it That's Heavy thank you sir got it okay I think that's enough excitement for one day we gotta put that other one back together but crazy huh that was nuts that's not fun I don't want to do that again but uh always expect the unexpected and beekeeping so that's it for this video appreciate you guys watching I'll see you on the next one

Channel: Bees in the Weeds

Views: 31,605

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Id: fqoa_fu6d-4

Length: 49min 16sec (2956 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 12 2023