Beesource Beekeeping Forums banner

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

Charlie B.. Odfrank... Caught one more today, (total of four) but, I can't in good faith, count this one. It came to a box that I had placed out at the end of a barn, with some old lumber to be thrown away. No frames and no lemongrass oil.

I started a new thread with photo. It was sitting almost on the ground. The photo doesn't show that the rear of the box is broken, that is why I was throwing it away.

cchoganjr
 
#67 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

I think that should count Cleo. Same thing happened to Odfrank but his box was is worse condition than yours. The only difference was he's so cheap, he wasn't intending on throwing his away!
 
#69 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

he's so cheap, he wasn't intending on throwing his away!
Just to prove Charlie wrong, I have been making some new jumbo depth boxes from some nice 1X10 redwood fence lumber I found.
 
#77 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

We are not even half way through the swarming season and we haven't even got out of winter yet. Your hives haven't swarmed YET. Both you and your master will be running their butts off in May chasing those gigantic swarms from hives that have left behind two medium supers of crop stored earlier and clogging up the brood chambers. Grasshopper, how many times do I have to tell you to quit taking beekeeping advice from those left coasters?
 
#81 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

I know that there are thousands of swarms more than traps set and I am doing my best to change those statistics. The cutout calls will start flooding in any time now. The local bee club has just again imported a hundred or more packages and hived them in their tiny topbar hives or 8 frame doubles with no honey supers.....looking gleefully forward to next year or even later this season. Like Charlie I should become club president so that I too have the mailing list addresses. Smart guy Trapper Charlie.
 
#83 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

And because I am one of the Club officers, I do have the addresses :)
We have about 60 newbees in our club getting packages which will be here next week. So with Fuzzy's list added with mine that should be over 200 VSH New World Carniolan swarms with marked queens.

FIELD TRIP! :wiener:
 
#86 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

I am ecstatic, breathless, in euphoria, my ship came in, my stars have crossed. A contractor friend, who has had my bait hives at his residence for years, called me demanding bait hives at his new construction site because "it has so much bee activity". Google maps indicate that it is only .7 MILES AWAY FROM CHARLIES SITE AT HIS MOTHER INLAW'S HOUSE. Does life get any better than this? How many hives do you have there? Saratoga here I come.
 
#87 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

I don't have to worry because I attended Jollie Ollie's school of swarm prevention and I'm pretty sure they're not going to swarm. Unless you want a load of rock salt in your "you know what" I wouldn't get to close! My Mother-In-Law is a good shot!
 
#89 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

One swarm in a 10 frame bait hive yesterday.
One swarm in a newly placed 5 frame bait hive today ( less than 3hrs )
4 hand retrievals so far

and lots of interest in another 10 frame bait hive set up today.

Again, none of these from my hives, but I'm gonna have to get more supers soon. Saturday and Sunday should be killer swarm days.
 
#90 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

>One swarm in a newly placed 5 frame bait hive today ( less than 3hrs )

That's about my record also. Placed it after lunch. Host called in an hour that it was awash with scouts. A while later he called screaming a swarm was coming down the street and turning into the driveway. In a cardboard nuc box on a table,I was nearby and returned after it was mostly in. Here are the pics.



 
#91 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

>One swarm in a newly placed 5 frame bait hive today ( less than 3hrs )

A while later he called screaming a swarm was coming down the street and turning into the driveway. In a cardboard nuc box on a table,I was nearby and returned after it was mostly in. Here are the pics.


I want video of the swarm coming down the street and turning into driveway:eek:
(is this another fish story?)
 
#93 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

For Charlie and Bevy who don't trust me and just called me a big liar here are some more statistics to also doubt while you squirm with jealousy in your pathetic little world:
To date 2012 with swarm season just started:
Six bait hives all caught on their stands at ground level
Three swarms caught
 
#94 · (Edited)
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

I am with you odfrank. I rarely put swarm traps higher than i can reach. Most are sitting on plastic barrels, mice can't climb the plastic. The only time I put them higher than I can reach is if i put them on a deer stand out in the woods. I use old worn out ten frame deeps.

Three caught so far.

cchoganjr
 
#95 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

I agree with you both. After last years 2 near death experiences on a 10 foot stepladder with swarm traps so heavy I could hardly lift them off of the nail, I am an ON THE GROUND kind of guy. I have used ladder deer stands, but it is just so much safer on the ground. I know there is a body of evidence suggesting that success rates are higher when traps are approximately 15 feet (Bee Culture April 2012), but I have caught a lot of swarms at 4-6 feet.

I have seen a lot of bee trees where the entrance is at ground level or less than a foot. Stay on the ground and stay safe.
 
#96 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

last years 2 near death experiences on a 10 foot stepladder.
I had a host help me catch a swarm yesterday and the hardest part was convincing him to not risk life and limb up a rickety ladder for a few silly insects. We pole prune cut their branch and let them fall 15 feet onto a nuc box and they marched right in. No broken necks or life in a wheelchair.
 
#97 ·
Re: Why is the odfrank challenge closed?

I´m also in agreement about hanging the bait boxes lower. I keep them high enough so that if I stretch I can reach the entrance to stuff in the sponge when taking them down.

Mine are literally hanging. The rope is thrown over a branch above the trap and I just hoist it up or gently lower it down. I try to rest it against another branch or the trunk so it doesn´t move in the wind. I just need to stuff the entrance, untie the rope and lower it down. No worries about falling out of the tree (I´ve got enough the way it is about tripping over rocks or tree roots at night).

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

I´ve also had some nightmare removals involving heavy traps that I had to get out of the tree. A friend of mine set up the trap hive from this next picture (I don´t want to take the blame for this one).

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

It was several weeks before we could get to it and the bees had filled the box. Instead of hanging the box, he set in the crotch of the tree. It was nice and stable but really hard to lift it out of there. The weight had jammed it in there even more. Added to that was only having one hand available while the other was hanging onto the tree to keep from falling. The bark of this tree made for slippery footing, making the removal that much more difficult. And it was night.

On a side note, swarms have stopped (momentarily I hope) here. We´ve been having some fairly good rains just before evening which might be affecting this. Rains are unusual this time of year. There should still be swarms flying here until at least the middle of May. I´m still at 21 swarms, having filled 75% of the bait boxes I've set out.


----------
Tom
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top