mickrow
07-24-2005, 12:59 PM
This was a first for me. One of my five hives swarmed, but within a day or two I noticed it about fifteen feet up in a tree about a hundred feet away from the hive. I managed to saw off the limb and dump the majority of the swarm in a hive body with ten frames of new foundation. It was a huge swarm – easily most of the colony, so I wanted to get them back to the original hive asap as we seem to be in the middle of a good flow.
I searched through the original two hive boxes and removed all the queen cells. Then I put a sheet of newspaper on top and set the swarm box on it. (I knew the swarm had been out for at least a full day and wanted a gradual reintroduction to the old hive.) Above the swarm box went the queen excluder and then the partially started medium super.
I returned the next day to see if the queen had gone down into the old hive. Not only was she still in the new box, but they had started building up comb on two frames and she had nearly filled them with eggs. I had intended to move her down into the old box but decided to wait another day or two to make sure they all are used to each other. The newspaper had been mostly chewed through so I removed the remnants.
I had read a lot about catching swarms, but I can’t recall hearing about anyone returning the swarm to the same hive. So far everything seems ok. How did I do? Any suggestions?
I searched through the original two hive boxes and removed all the queen cells. Then I put a sheet of newspaper on top and set the swarm box on it. (I knew the swarm had been out for at least a full day and wanted a gradual reintroduction to the old hive.) Above the swarm box went the queen excluder and then the partially started medium super.
I returned the next day to see if the queen had gone down into the old hive. Not only was she still in the new box, but they had started building up comb on two frames and she had nearly filled them with eggs. I had intended to move her down into the old box but decided to wait another day or two to make sure they all are used to each other. The newspaper had been mostly chewed through so I removed the remnants.
I had read a lot about catching swarms, but I can’t recall hearing about anyone returning the swarm to the same hive. So far everything seems ok. How did I do? Any suggestions?