Trap Out: Beginning Success & Colony #6

Initially, on the first check of the trap-out at Nolan & Cory's (I call them "Nory" :) ), there were no bees in the box. I realized my mistake: I'd not put a frame or two with eggs, larvae and brood in the box as a lure. On my second trip I'd done just that. Also I repaired a hole and second entrance they'd made through the duct tape (in the video I saw attic insulation, but really it was a window-unit air conditioner insulation; that stuff was crucial in plugging up the holes, so I'll have that cheap material on hand for any future trap outs). The videos show the lure frame and the entrance repair (I apologize for the awful sounds at the end of one of the lure video ... this is new to me.)

A couple weeks passed. It was time to check. SUCCESS! When I took off the top I was greeted with a decent amount of bees. Also there was a nice piece of comb they'd attached to the lid, which made for a nice little souvenir. It's 16 feet in the air so I had to reach over from the top of the ladder and pull the frames out one by one to see which frames had bees. Only one frame did, but it was a gorgeous frame with a fair amount of bees and fresh comb on it where they'd finished building out the bottom corners.

I put the frame in the bucket and lowered it down. I then put the frames in my travel nuc, which had the bottom stapled to it with some screen over the entrance and a screen flap underneath the lid. I rubber-banded the lid partially open during the ride home, since the whole affair is quite disturbing to the bees and their temperature rises quite high. If you don't ventilate, you'll cook the bees.

Two weeks had passed, and the lure frame was filled with capped brood and a few larvae. You can see that in the third photo below. It takes only 9 days from a freshly laid egg to become capped brood. That means the old queen has been in the trap box and on the lure frame, laying away. That's even MORE success, because now I know I can lure the queen out. Once she's removed I'll lower the trap door with the one-way escape, thereby removing all remaining bees inside the patio roof at Nory's. This is working! But the BEST part was seeing on this single frame a gorgeous capped queen cell. This single frame was now a queen-right colony. The queen cell is the large light-colored cell hanging from the top side of the frame hanging out and down. I wasn't sure if the old queen was on the frame or not, but either way the colony had decided to supersede her. My first trap-out is quite an education and thrill ride.

Once placed into my apiary, they seemed quite content. A brief removal of the lid a week later and all was quiet, indicating they're happy with their newly hatched queen. I still have plenty of bees to remove from Nory's, but with this first take-away I already have colony #6 in the apiary. My next take-aways might mean colony #7 and possibly #8! I'd better get to building more equipment and fast! And painting. And building more frames.

I can't believe how fast and furious this year has been in the bee raising business at T's Bees. I still hope that my first ever honey harvest this year will get me close to my goal of 150 pounds. Even if it doesn't I'll be happy with the 90 pounds I know is out there. But all of these extra colonies mean I can sell nucs to those needing some emergency bees after initial failures, as well as have plenty of backup queens. I'm going to turn these nucs into comb-building machines, since comb is so crucial to success. That way next  year's honey harvest is bound to be quite large! :)