Picked up my first swarm of the year. A woman called looking for someone to get the bees out of a hollow tree. Told her I didn't want to do a trap out, but if they swarmed, and she got a ball of bees on a limb in a tree, to call me. 3 hours later, she is calling. Said there was a ball, just like I told her, in a crepe myrtle, about 20 ft from the bee tree. Got about 1.5 - 2 lbs of bees. Fairly gentle.
First swarm
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Congratulations, free bees are the best!
Doesn;t look like it. My swarm absconded. I went out to look at them this evening, and they were gone. Maybe I will pick them back up in one of my swarm traps. They were there yesterday evening. I had put a quart of sugar syrup in a division board feeder. It was empty, of course. I should have put a frame of brood, from one of my other hives, in there. I doubt if the queen would have left the brood. Oh well. Darn it!
One thing to try when catching swarms is using a queen excluder as an includer. I have some queen excluders that I cut up and placed on the front to cover the entrace. This keeps the queen in the hive and forces them to make it a home. Haven't lost a swarm since I started using it.
Here is a pic. I now have them cut down to where staples hold it on and are easily put on and removed.
I use the queen excluder as an includer, as suggested, except that I don't cut mine. I just place them on top of the bottom board before I set the bottom brood chamber on. Have not lost a cut-out, split, or captured swarm since I started using them. One other thing, if you use a screened bottom board, make sure you close it when you hive the swarm. They want it dark and cozy, and I think it helps the queen pheremone to more easily permeate the hive.
Putting and excluder under the brood chamber sounds like a good idea. I could have used that last year as one cut out fled. The swarm I capped last weekend, I couldn't have done it since the hive body is nailed to the bottom board, but think I am past the point of worry since I inspected the hive on Wednesday and found eggs, the queen was already laying! I was very happy to see that inspite of giving them some frames that needed cleaning up, they got the job done and seem to be doing good. Now if I could find my iphone so I'll be ready for the next call, life would be good. It's been MIA for 3 days now, prob time to give up and go to Best Buy for a replacement.
Craig
Craig
As I put the swarm in a nuc, I would have to cut the excluder, regardless, unless I would want the excluder (plastic) to stick out 8 inches on either side. On the nuc, I think it would be easier to just cut a piece of plastic excluder and place across the entrance.
Have used the exluder as an includer many times. Some with swarms and some with packages.
Before leaving a swarm site and you know you have the bees but you didn't see the queen, look around on the ground or limbs. If you see a small group of bees. Could be anywhere from 5 to 15 bees better check it out as they queen may be with those bees. Found that to be the case several times.
Before leaving a swarm site and you know you have the bees but you didn't see the queen, look around on the ground or limbs. If you see a small group of bees. Could be anywhere from 5 to 15 bees better check it out as they queen may be with those bees. Found that to be the case several times.
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I cut up plastic queen excluder into 2"x4" pieces&tack-nail[drive nails in halfway &bend over,this way removal is easy] a piece to 1 side of entrance.Then cut piece of 3/4x3/4 as an entrance reducer just long enough to tuck behind the piece of queen exc.&so far have all 5 swarms caught this week.they are drawing out the foundation, so in a few days I'll remove it all.
When I get swarms the homeowner wants all bees taken with me. So I have made two trips when the swarm is close to me. One to shake it into a hive and the second trip to get them about dark when they have all gone inside.
That is the hard way do doing things I am sure. So I was going to make ma a plywood box with only a lid. The bottom perm attached and then put a plastic bee escape on all four sides. I am thinking I shake the bees in it and set back for an hour- others go in but they cant come back out of that escape. WHat do you guys think??
That is the hard way do doing things I am sure. So I was going to make ma a plywood box with only a lid. The bottom perm attached and then put a plastic bee escape on all four sides. I am thinking I shake the bees in it and set back for an hour- others go in but they cant come back out of that escape. WHat do you guys think??
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not to steal the thread,but I'd like to explain to kyfarmer how we've been doing it.Take a 5gal bucket&cut out the center of the lid,leaving about 2" ring .Use 1/8" hardware cloth to cover this.cut about an 1 1/2" hole in center of screen.Make a funnel out of a piece of the screen&attatchto center hole.I make the funnel a little bigger than the hole,push it in as far as I can,then snip it &fold over.I use a piece of telephone wire to tie the funnel in place.Wrap the funnel on the part in the bucket with duct tape to give it a dark hole look.you can also take a long handled paint roller,cut off the roller part,slide the rod under the rim where the bucket handle is,attatch to bucket with electric conduit clamp&now you have a swarm catcher you can put extension poles on to reach 'up there'.place a small limb in the bucket to avoid crushing.after getting as many bees as possible,if you got the queen they will crawl in the funnel&the few that remain on the top fanning you can cover with a piece of sheet till you get them to their new home
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Cool idea baldwinbees! Thanks for sharing
I got my first one yesterday also. Sort of. They were under a hot tub and apparently had been there for a couple of days and it was really hard to get to them. I took off the sides and used a small box to knock them into and then dumped them in a 8 frame deep box. I don't think I got the queen so when I got home in the dark I took a frame out of one of my stronger hives and wouldn't you know 2 capped queen cells. So either way they will have a queen shortly. Now I'm stuck at work wondering if my hive will swarm before tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be able to do something with that hive. I was just in it a week ago and everything seemed fine. Now I think it is trying to swarm. Its really cool and windy today so hopefully they will wait until tomorrow.
There were a couple of small clusters that I looked over, but there was not a queen there. I did notice after putting the swarm in the nuc, that a couple of bees were fanning their phermone out, at the entrance, and I took that to mean that the queen was in the hive. ???
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