Hi all. New keeper here in Kansas! I just moved my brand new bees!!! from the swarm trap to hive today and ran into an unexpected issue. So, the (short) backstory... I live in Kansas and am very interested in bees (fascinating creatures) and all they do for us. This spring I set out 4 swarm traps and 1 of them managed to collect a swarm. I'm very excited! I slowly worked the trap down the tree 3 feet at a time to ground level. Today, finally moved them into the Langstroth hive I built. I was surprised to find they had built comb connecting the frames in the swarm trap (almost zig-zag) from one to the other. The move went fine (all frames moved and bees followed, many larvae noted, queen found and successfully moved, all looked good), but in moving them, much of the comb had to be "torn" using the hive tool to separate frames. I did build the hive and frames myself, but followed plans to a T. Did they build comb that connected frames because I did not have the comb starter/base in place (I just placed empty frames assuming bees know how to build comb without a starter), were my frames incorrect possibly, or is this normal to see in some cases. None of my books mention this and not sure if its normal or not, or if my bees just didn't read the copy of the book I left for them
. Several large chunks of comb fell off when I was moving them because of this, so I placed them loosely into the frames close to where they were originally hanging assuming the bees will reconnect them to the frame and continue using them. Is this okay? And also, should I replace these frames with ones that have comb starter in them to prevent this in the future? Sorry for all the questions, just want to make sure I'm doing this right.
Last question: My other swarm traps had a LOT of ants in them. Will ants prevent bees from making a home there and any suggestions to prevent this? or do I just need to check them regularly and clean as needed?
Thank you for any help you can provide.
Matt
Last question: My other swarm traps had a LOT of ants in them. Will ants prevent bees from making a home there and any suggestions to prevent this? or do I just need to check them regularly and clean as needed?
Thank you for any help you can provide.
Matt