20 Packages yesterday 1 super hive

devdog108 said:

and some followed her over.....they must like her...LOL

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SOME? I think half of each package of the 20 we did yesterday

Two hives swarmed one in to that one i think and then one underneath. I am going to go capture it. Then the rest are covering the hive. I took scoops of them and put it into hives with less bees. Not sure if that was the right thing to do but, Figured they could use it and some will leave but, maybe some will stay. Will have to play the robbing and split game later in the season.

What a cluster this turned out to be literally.

I am thinking that the hives had not spent enough time with their queens. Also should have locked them in for a day and also not put marshmallow's in and should have just left her in the cage for a few more days.

There are 10 full frames in the bottom and now 10 frames on top and they were all over the front. There was I think another swarm under this box also. We captured that group into another box also. I also took piles of them and put them in boxes that were light. But, that box is booming. In a week I will check and see who has brood and who does not and then get queens for those that don't.

So mistakes were not spraying them down with sugar water Also should not have used the marshmallows. Also should have done it later in the day or evening.

Now they are all in 20 boxes and we will see how it works out.

Geez, Tough crowd. That is just this batch. Home Depot oops paint 15 bucks got two 5 gallon buckets same color. I am going to mix some green in the next bucket to give it a greenish tint. This is my other apiary up near the house. It has baby blue, Grey, Green, Purple, Yellow boxes. Is that more to your liking? Same cinder blocks except I sprung and did two layers. My Forklift (tractor) will only pick up 30 at a time so had to skimp on the new hives. These will be moving later this summer down to where the mall hives are.

Your sixty pound package of bees, does look awesome. I hope you can figure a way to get them all sorted out or that's gonna be a hive ready to swarm about as soon as you can turn around and an extremely expensive single colony. Though it probably finished drawing the foundation last night.

If your schedule permits, you should probably spread those bees out into the various hives as soon as possible - once they all orient to the single box it is going to be much more difficult to separate them out again. Of course if it is raining or very cold they will possibly stay put until the weather is warmer and clear, but if there is good weather they will orient right away and that will make sorting them out, more difficult.

As you can see I've been trying to think what I would do to try to straighten out your situation.

My best guess would be to work at night using a bright red LED headlight (I work at night with one regularly). Bees will crawl in the dark, but they will fly almost not at all. Then separate them into the various hives, as evenly as possible while it is dark enough to keep them from flying, then either screen them into their respective hives for a day or two; or temporarily place small branches across their entrances to force them into reorientation mode, possibly both confine and branch. Of course make sure they have plenty of feed and that each has a queen.