Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Saving The Nurse Bees

This is where we bumped/brushed the nurse bees off yesterday, some of them could fly a little, but not very far.

I glanced out of the window today and saw more flights going on, but I didn't go out to see. I was afraid of what I might see and I didn't want to face it.
The ground was empty of them this afternoon.

Before I go any further, I want to say that I have the sweetest and most kind hearted husband ever! I Love him more than words could ever say! It's awesome being able to share a passion about something with someone you Love!
He came up with the sweetest idea when he saw the bees clinging to life... huddled together in a ball under this old boat trailer.

He came in and talked to me about seeing if we could maybe start them over in a nuc box of their own, putting in a frame of eggs or brood and a queen cell from my queen hive. An amazing idea to me! IF the little worker layer is still in there maybe she will have halted her production and will let one of my new little queens hatch.


We sprayed them with a little sugar water and brushed them in with some soft dog fennel.


You can see them with their little hinnies in the air fanning to let the others know they now have a safe new home.....I reached across the box to brush the rest of them in and I couldn't believe the air that I felt coming from those little wings! It was like there was a tiny fan inside of that box! Bless their little hearts they are so amazing!

All tucked in for the night....I had to agree with my husband...they sounded so happy!

I was thinking a lot about that little layer today....she had leadership qualities. She saw that the hive was in danger and even though she couldn't keep them alive...by george, she was going to give it a try! She wanted the hive to think they had a queen so they would keep the colony alive;) She had hope!
I think next time (if we ever have to do this again), we'll just brush them off in a box from the start. But we'll see if this one works out first...and I'm hoping we won't go through this again, but at least we know how to deal with it if we do.

Until next time.....
BEE HOPEFUL!
Julie

5 comments:

  1. That's awesome, Julie. I can't wait to hear if they ended up accepting a new queen!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just now put two queen cells in there on a frame with some drone cells. I failed to mention that you HAVE to have drones or drone cells in the hive in order for the queen to mate! These little girls had neither....I'm keeping my fingers crossed...one should hatch next week, and I have no doubt that they will except her, I just hope she mates and lives!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bees are amazing. I have always loved them and respected them, but your documentation has brought that respect to new heights. You do a great work, Julie!

    Bee proud! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. How is this hive doing, Julie?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kim, you are my encouraging little queen! ;) Thank you for always dropping by!
    XXX Hugs!


    Julia, I ended up having to merge them with a nuc, they were being robbed the next morning and when I went in to check the next day they were barely hanging on. The nuc excepted them which made me happy, I have found that when I merge they except one another better with powder sugar! I've only done this with very small amounts of bees though, so not sure if I'd go the full Monty on a larger scale. I'd have to think about that one. I've merged bees together before the "book" way and it worked very well. It's in one of my earliest posts.
    Thank you for asking and thanks for stopping by! ;)

    ReplyDelete

Labels