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need some help

4K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  ladyapple 
#1 ·
just starting to get some bees. i work in a apple orchard every year there are 7-8 swarms this year there was a old bee box so i got me a swarm and put in box what do i do next

thjank you leo
 
#2 ·
Hello Leo,
The first step you took was great, you caught the swarm and put it into a hive. Hopefully it was a clean one, clean as in not contaminated by AFB or EFB, (American Foul Brood or European Foul Brood.) Now I have a couple of questions. 1. Was there any frames of foundation or drawn comb in the "Bee Box"? If not, you will need to put some in there. 10 frames of foundation if that is all you have. Nine or ten of drawn comb, which ever you prefer to work with. If possible and you know of a bee keeper in the area, get a frame of brood from him or her and put that in the hive, (make that one of the nine or ten if you do that) This tends to make the bees stick around if they have brood to tend. 2. How long have they been in the hive if you have not put any foundation or drawn comb in there? A swarm is a comb building machine after they reach thier new home so if they did not have frames to work on and it has been a few days now, there will probably be comb build all over the place in the box. If so, I guess all you can do is scrap it out and put in your frames. 3. Is there a good honey flow on up there in Washington State now? If so, then you should not have to feed sugar, but it would'nt hurt if you did. They need something to keep building comb. There is probably a dozen other things that I am not telling you that you should do, but this is basically a start. Hopefully others here at this site that are much more experienced than me will give you some good info. There is a lot of good links at the Beesource with helpful info for bee-ginners. Best of luck with your hive.

DBAK

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#3 ·
thank you dbark you are the only one to help me.i put a bee box and then put some frames in then put a box on top with frames with wire on them. yesterday i looked and the bottom box is a little more then half filled with wax and honey a few are stating on top box.do i need to put a wire and then one more bee box

thank you leo

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