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Swarm challenge

86K views 320 replies 35 participants last post by  odfrank 
#1 ·
I got home today from a 8 day vacation, which began with 3 days at Master Beekeeper program and Bee College in St Augustine Fla. I have bait hives in my back yard. Nothing. So I expected nothing at my other bait hives. I went out to my apiary where I have one bait hive and low and behold, bees have moved in. Not a large colony and I didn't want to poke around too much, they are in a deep box building comb on 2 foundationless frames and covering the 2 drawn frames I put in. Then I went to my son's where I have a nuk bait box on a ladder next to the garage, and they are moved in there. I could hear and see plenty of bees. I didn't take pics. I have 3 boxes in my back yard and I still have 2 more sites to place boxes.

Makes up for the colony I lost this spring. It is certainly spring in SW FL. I got some great teaching on africanized bees, as this is a big concern in my area. I am equipped to deal with that too. Bee college was fantastic, and I am now an "apprentice beekeeper" in the Master Beekeeping program.
Beverly
 
#34 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

One in the bee tree, one in the nuc (I suspect one is from my cutout hive, but don't know.) Cutout hive is 3 medium boxes pretty full, I just gave them a deep to encourage them to move down and draw comb, cutout A robbed out cutout B today, or someone did, and there are a ton more bees in the 3 box cutout. Got bees guarding the nuc (with no food supplied) and others guarding the bee tree entrance. At least two swarms? I'm happy

Gypsi

 
#35 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

I may have an unfair advantage with all my swarmy africanized bees, but I'm now at 21 swarms since about the beginning of February.

I checked one site at the edge of town on Saturday--three traps and three swarms. On Sunday I went to check another site north of town--again three traps and three swarms. I recently caught three swarms on the same weekend right in my back yard. One of the swarms moved into a trap hive I just happened to have sitting on the ground next to the back door.

Just about every box I'm hanging is getting filled. I only have six empty ones hanging at the moment. They should also get filled, expecially since I will have bees swarming until the middle of May. April is one of the better months. Unfortunatly, I'm running out of equipment. That might put a damper on things. But I also have a 12 day vacation coming up due to Easter so that will give me time to fix that problem.

The odd part is that I've only had one person tell me about a swarm in a tree. I usually get several of those every year.

Just to show a bit of proof, here's a photo of five of them sitting in my backyard. Just about everything I have is in top bar hives so the design of my trap hives is the same. Everything looks brown in the photo because it's the dry season in my part of Honduras--and I mean really dry. I need to be extra carefull with using the smoker in the bee yards.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s313/Tomas_fotos/014.jpg

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Tom
 
#36 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Wow Tomas,

That's incredible. How hot are your africanized bees? Judging by the number of stingers in your glove, I would say they're pretty hot. I'm going to be in Guatemala in July. I may need to pay a site visit! :)
 
#41 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Intheswamp....I would set a trap on it, not near it, and get two to four colonies from the tree during this year, and more in years to come. Swarm traps nearby, are hit and miss. Trap set on the tree is guaranteed.

cchoganjr
Cleo, so you are you saying put a swarm trap directly on the tree? I thought they were swarming for crowding and trying to put space between them and the mother colony. :s What about 5' away?

I may have to enter this challenge after all... ;)

Ed
 
#40 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

>I may have an unfair advantage with all my swarmy africanized bees, but I'm now at 21 swarms since about the beginning of February.

OK, we better make some new rules...

28. No African bees allowed.
29. No foreigners allowed to participate in the challenge.
 
#42 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Intheswamp...e-mail me cchoganjr@scrtc.com and I will send you instructions to put a trap on the tree, you can build it yourself from a nuc or 8 or 10 frame deep. A good tree will get you 3 to 5 starts ( 3 to 5 pounds each), each year, and you don't kill the feral colony. You can trap year after year.

The purpose of the trap is to get you three to five pounds of bees for a start. After you remove them, let the tree build up for a couple weeks, then trap again. Normally after two starts you will need to wait about 30 days, unless the colony is a very large one.

A bait hive is at best, hit and miss. In fact you will miss, far more often than you will hit. Of course it is good to have bait hives out, but the trap will weaken the hive each time you remove a start and help prevent it from swarming. If it does swarm, they may go 20 feet or they may go 1/4 to 1/2 mile before they find something they like.

The trap is a sure thing. A bait hive is better than nothing, but no guarantee they will go into it, regardless of distance from feral source.

cchoganjr
 
#43 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Hmmm, sounds like this would be actually trapping the bees out of the hive using your trap. I really don't want to interrupt this colony in any way as it appears to be a survivor and a good strong one. I would hate to think I did something to harm them by weakening them beyond their natural swarming. I really appreciate the offer of the info and would still like to see your method in case a situation arrives that would work for me....game?

Ed
 
#50 · (Edited)
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Another Wow! for Tomas.
I think we found someone that can give OD a run for his money.
I don't think we should exclude anyone because they're not from the U.S. After all, we're letting people from Texas compete! :eek:

Look out Ollie, :lookout: Tomas is out to get you!
 
#45 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

intheswamp..... you are not going to hurt the feral colony unless you over trap and weaken it. This time of year that is difficult to do. You will be able to tell how strong the feral hive is, by, how many days it takes to get 3 to 5 pounds of bees in your trap. A good strong hive will put three to five pounds of bees in your trap within 24 to 48 hours of introduction of the unsealed brood. If it takes longer, let them come and go through the trap and let the colony build back up. The trap is an integral part of their colony, and it doesn't bother them.

If you get the queen, you will have a good survivor queen, and the colony will make itself a new queen this time of year, since there is normally lots of unsealed brood available for the feral colony to make themselves a new queen. As you get futher into the year it becomes more problematic that they can make a new queen.

If you allow them to naturally swarm, they will find a new home, may or may not be in one of your bait hives. I trap the same trees year after year.

send me an e-mail and I will send the info along with photos of two of my traps in progress. The photos show the process of trapping from start to ready to relocate.

cchoganjr
 
#46 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Cleo - I am excited. From one cutout, I have the main feral colony, plus my bee tree (minus roots) in my garden, and a nuc, that appear to have bees and queen. Flow is on and about to pick up speed massively around here. I intend to let the bees in the hollow tree get themselves established, then just mount a swarm trap on it and harvest multiple colonies this spring. After I get the woodware to keep up with the bee-flow built.
 
#47 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Gypsi..... Sounds like a plan to me. Good Luck. Wonder if oddfrank would let you put a trap on one of his hives. HA!!! He is way ahead in this contest.

In Kentucky, our swarm season has just started. Only caught 2 tree hangers so far. We don't have a lot of feral colonies. Mites in the late 90's and a highly agriculture area with lots of pesticides, and feral bees are scarce.

cchoganjr
 
#48 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Cleo - most of our ferals died in the last month. Drought and dearth last year, warm winter with few stores this year. The cutout I just did had red honey, which means they lived on hummingbird food that people put out.

These are a lively bunch of bees, but pretty docile. Might be all the mites draining their energy, but they just seem to be sweet bees, if prolific. They did rob out the contents of hive B and steal all their honey. I think they let the bees join the club though, seems like the bee count doubled in size and the hive entrances were 3 inches apart.

Inthe swamp, that is one purty bee tree - would wear a trap proudly.

and Tomas is definitely winning the swarm catching contest. OD doesn't stand a chance. None of us do.
 
#53 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Like I said, I may have an unfair advantage with africanized bees. Maybe we need to level the playing field a bit--two of mine for every one of yours up north? :) I'm not taking this challenge overly serious though--just good fun.

I do take my swarm trapping seriously, however. It would be really nice to have a fourth yard with 20 or 30 hives in production next year. I just got the location of it confirmed yesterday. Getting the apiary set up with hive stands is on the agenda for next week. I've got too many bait boxes with bees that need a home. There are seven sitting in my back yard that I need to move out. Another three are still hanging in a tree.

Just so everyone knows, I am from the States, Wisconsin to be exact--I just happen to have lived down here in Honduras for the last 20 years. I came down here with Peace Corps and sort of fell in love with the place (or I should say with my wife). Africanized bees can be ornery but that challenge makes beekeeping here that much more interesting.

Good luck to every one else on catching swarms.

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Tom
 
#56 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

I think since the thread is named after me, I should be able to change the rules as I see fit.
TWO more today and the weather wasn't even good
. And I doubt that they are AHB.
 
#57 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

I know I'm in AHB country but so far all my feral colonies behave no different than my store bought.

Anyway, I got my 4th swarm in the same box and place as #2, at my son's house. I moved first catch into a deep because all 5 frames were drawn and I wanted to try with that box again, and it only took a couple days for this next swarm to move in. I took it out to my apiary and went through it. There's a queen and 2 drawn frames (beside the existing drawn frame) and a decent amount of bees. The only box of the 4 I have not gone into yet is the one in my back yard.

I am done now, unless I decide to order more deeps. I only have enough for these colonies. I have 12 hives now which was my goal...but it sure would be fun to keep trying.
(I am not an addict, I am not an addict,)
 
#58 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Ok, everyone check in and tell us your swarm count. Remember, each individual swarm had to have chosen your trap and moved in on their own. I have not had one swarm move in to any of my traps yet. :(
 
#59 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Charlie B... Oddfrank.. Just checked my swarm hives this morning, (About 12 miles and 25+ traps) Found two occupied since last week. One very small, only covering one brood frame, but saw the queen. Only two I have caught so far. Here in Kentucky we don't have a lot of feral bees, and I am one of the few beekeepers with lots of hives. None close to me. Valleyman may be the closest, 25 miles.

At one of my swarm boxes I saw about 30-40 bees coming and going on the landing board and i thought I had a third one, but nothing inside. Might have been scouts looking for a home. I caught two there last year, but, they were late in the year. I put two good dark brood combs in and will check it in a couple of days. I am out of lemongrass oil. Need to order some today.

Oddfrank is in no danger of me beating him.

cchoganjr
 
#63 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

Four baited in, two swarms caught, one was my own. When this rain is over keep your veil on. Three of the four baits were seven framers and so was yesterdays swarm from my own hive. I padgened this swarm, installed it on the location of the original hive and moved the original off to the side. This inhibits the original hive from casting an after swarm because all the foragers join the swarm colony making it a powerhouse.
 
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