Her Royal Worshipfulness goes Home

[ainsof]

Hi Folks,

Thanks to everyone for their advice regarding my swarm issue.

And I thought the install was an adrenaline rush... [img]smile.gif[/img]

As of last night, I successfully caught my queen and placed her back in the hive. She was preceeded by about 2/3's of the accompanying swarm via brush and dustpan.

They got pretty hot about it, but no stings... yet. Home made smudge pot and syrup mist worked wonders.

I brushed the remaining third up toward the landing board a la OnlyGoodSHB's advice. By this a.m., the majority were back in the hive.

Hole in the original queen cage was too small to load her up quickly (and didn't want to risk squishing her), so I rigged up a new queen cage out of a 3/4" dia. plastic hair roller (wife used to be a stylist), a bobby pin 'hanger', and two pieces of plain, uncoloured/unflavored saltwater taffy kneaded and shaped into discs.

I hope it isn't toxic to the girls... (syrup is only taken up to 240 in recipe, not quite carmelized temp if I recall)

An hour later, we went back out to observe and noticed "wax dust" being brought out onto the landing board. (I hope they're not chewing up all that foundation.) What causes them to chew foundation anyway?

I already had a queen excluder (thanks peggjam) coming in the mail, but it might not make it in time. How long do you think I have before they chew through either 1/2" thick plug and release her Wandering Highness-ness?

I figured I could temporarily use a piece of galv hardware cloth over the entrance reducer, but what size will allow only the workers (& drones?) through?

[Michael Bush]

>What causes them to chew foundation anyway?

They are probably just cleaning it up. They might be moving some wax around and some bees drop some wax and the house bees haul it out for trash.

They will probably settle in fine. The queen may be out pretty quickly if there is room for several bees to work on the candy at once. But I wouldn't expect them to be leaving now.

>I figured I could temporarily use a piece of galv hardware cloth over the entrance reducer, but what size will allow only the workers (& drones?) through?

#5 won't let a queen or drone through but will let the workers through. Unfortunately it also doesn't let the pollen through. (It is what is typically used for pollen traps.)

#4 will let everything through, including the queen and drones.

[ainsof]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the sound info. We'll check the local hardware store tomorrow.

Well... Glad I didn't get my hopes up too high. We got home tonight and lo... they swarmed again :confused:

Looks like the taffy melted at some point today and she bailed out.

Luckily, this time the majority of the girls chose to cluster underneath a board (ramp) propped in front of the landing board. Might make Round 2 of "Catch the Queen" a little easier.

This time though, I'm modifying a (clean) 10cc veterinary syringe into something like the queen marking devices sold by suppliers. Easier to isolate her and let her scurry back into the original queen cage for "reinstallment."

I thought about heat yesterday, and today was in the 80's, so I shimmed up the inner cover, but I'm perplexed as to why she'd go to this length to keep high tailing it out of Dodge? Whaddya think?

To quote my lovely wife,"Honey, you're queen is just F-ing goofy!" [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Michael Bush]

An excluder on the bottom board and no top entrance will stop the queen from leaving.

Hardware stores never stock #5. You have to special order it by the roll from them or by the foot from Brushy Mt or Betterbee.

[GDH]

If you need to order #5, check out McMasterCarr.com, you can usually get small lots the next day if ordered before noon.