[thesolarsailor]

Hi All,

Been lurking in the background reading all the info here. Built a top bar hive over the winter and have been waiting for swarm season. Arrived at work today to an urgent message from our safety person about bees in a tree, turned out to be a swarm, went home, got hive and shook them into it (first swarm capture). They are all working on climbing into the hive or fanning to spread the word they have a new home.

Thanks for all of the good info here.

 

[JakeDatc]

Nice.. if they are working their way into the hive and not back to the branch you probably have the queen and should be golden. have some screen and tape to make everything secure for the ride home?

 

[thesolarsailor]

1 week update...

I have been keeping an eye on the hive but staying out. I read "At the hive entrance" over the weekend (there is a PDF available on Biobees.com) and I strongly recommend it. After reading the spring/summer portion of the book and watching the hive entrance I noticed I have 2 different colored bees (light & much darker) and since I saw pollen and nectar going in and lots of activity things must be OK.

I gave them a full week to get established before disturbing them:

Went up at lunch and opened the hive, pulled back the follower and found they have built out comb to the 11th bar (That's how many I gave them to start).

11th bar is about 1/3 full
10th bar is about 1/2 full
The rest taper out from there to full length.
I pulled back to bar 6 and they are all very straight, I did not feel it was necessary to open the brood nest at this time.

Overall I could not be happier with the colony, they are very busy, quite calm (I only wore a tee shirt, no veil, smoke or gloves) and good workers.

 

[jwcarlson]

That's awesome! Time to move (or remove) the follower.

 

[thesolarsailor]

I added 6 more bars...didn't put that in the post.

 

[AugustC]

Remember to insert new bars into the brood nest or the queen could become honey bound during a strong flow.