Worldwide Beekeeping

Beekeeping => Swarms, Cut Outs, Trap Outs and Bee Trees => Topic started by: gtrr4 on June 04, 2015, 08:29:50 pm

Title: My Second Swarm
Post by: gtrr4 on June 04, 2015, 08:29:50 pm

Well this warm I got a call last night and it's been on the tree for two days so I thought I try to get it last night before it took off during the day.  I got partial of the bees in the box and left the box overnight.  Majority of them left the box and went back to the tree.  You can see by the pictures that they were thinking about making the tree their permanent home as you can see they started to draw comb out from the branch.  Got them boxed up today and taking them home.
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs15.postimg.cc%2F8736nfcxj%2FScreenshot_2015_06_04_06_27_57.jpg&hash=c0bd9028a0a8d6606e8f44c8f7de960cda8ffd6f) (http://postimg.cc/image/8736nfcxj/)

(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs1.postimg.cc%2F7d9xinxm3%2F0604151926a.jpg&hash=6c7246d7b6efd09ef5fe7644a4c6d4d7d5dd74df) (http://postimg.cc/image/7d9xinxm3/)

(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs23.postimg.cc%2Fvxa5xihef%2F0604152000.jpg&hash=81dbd1b82a146c520b102f57995027d296c70594) (http://postimg.cc/image/vxa5xihef/)

Title: Re: My Second Swarm
Post by: Jen on June 04, 2015, 10:25:51 pm

Interesting, I haven't seen that before where they start pulling wax on a tree. Also, that second pic is just beautiful!

Title: Re: My Second Swarm
Post by: riverbee on June 04, 2015, 10:42:42 pm

a nice swarm!

and great pictures gt!
good luck to you, hope they do well for you! keep us posted!

Title: Re: My Second Swarm
Post by: gtrr4 on June 04, 2015, 10:47:46 pm

Thanks Jen n Rvbee.  I set the swarm on top of a hive that I think is queenless.  I will combine the Sat when I pull my first honey harvest.

Title: Re: My Second Swarm
Post by: blueblood on June 05, 2015, 10:05:10 am

Free beeeeeees!

Title: Re: My Second Swarm
Post by: gtrr4 on June 06, 2015, 04:12:02 pm

Just curious, when doing the newspaper method to combine hives, how long before they are fully acclimated?

Title: Re: My Second Swarm
Post by: Les on June 06, 2015, 08:17:40 pm

I just learned something else!

Title: Re: My Second Swarm
Post by: iddee on June 06, 2015, 10:25:22 pm

Fully acclimated in 24 hours.

Title: Re: My Second Swarm
Post by: efmesch on June 07, 2015, 05:07:56 am

Quote from: gtrr4 on June 04, 2015, 10:47:46 pm

....  I set the swarm on top of a hive that I think is queenless.  I will combine the Sat when I pull my first honey harvest.

If you can be sure that the bottom hive is queenless, don't wait with the merger. 
1. You'll avoid the problem of possibly developing laying workers.
2.  You'll have a stronger hive to bring in a bigger honey crop.
To prevent the problem of brood in the honey frames, make sure that after combination of the families, the queen and any brood she's started in the upper box get moved down. 

If you believe in using queen excluders, this would be the time to put one on to keep her down below. You could set back the top super about 2 cm (an inch or so),  to make it easy for the field bees to enter the top super without having to go through the excluder to deposit their nectar.  When the honey flow ends, move the super forward so as not to inspire robbing.