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Author Topic: Caging queen/swarm  (Read 5708 times)

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Offline crazy8days

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Caging queen/swarm
« on: April 25, 2014, 07:18:16 am »
I was reading on a Facebook beekeeping question group about how people are losing swarms that they caught.  One beekeeper said he has stopped that from happening by finding the queen and caging her for 3-4 days.  Has anyone tried this?
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Offline iddee

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Re: Caging queen/swarm
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2014, 07:33:46 am »
If I find them, I cage them 28 to 48 hours. I've never lost one after that time.
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Caging queen/swarm
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2014, 01:09:15 am »
What Iddee said!! If you have a frame of brood that can be spared give them that as well, then feed...  excellent results
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Offline Jen

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Re: Caging queen/swarm
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2014, 01:26:08 am »
What?  Whaaat?.... Then why wasn't I givin this advice when I was catching 7 swarms????

Crazy- ""I was reading on a Facebook beekeeping question group about how people are losing swarms that they caught.  One beekeeper said he has stopped that from happening by finding the queen and caging her for 3-4 days.  Has anyone tried this?""

The missing piece to this question is:

If a hive has swarmed, they have left behind capped queen cells. So, if you remove the queen and cage her up to 3-4 days, then the new queen/queens are going to hatch out in three days... and then you put the swarm queen back in...

So, it's either a fight... or they swarm again...

So, why is my situation considered a genetic problem?


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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Caging queen/swarm
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2014, 01:31:34 am »
He is talking about catching a feral swarm and keeping it from absconding..meaning they already had another location picked or they do not like the hive.. so the queen is caged. her bees begin making this their home, and are less likely to leave when she is released.
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Offline pistolpete

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Re: Caging queen/swarm
« Reply #5 on: April 26, 2014, 02:39:48 am »
A cage that works well in that situation is a push in cage.  The bees will chew their way into it in a couple of days, but at least you don't have to handle the queen.

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Offline blueblood

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Re: Caging queen/swarm
« Reply #6 on: April 26, 2014, 06:08:59 am »
Thanks for the idea Pete.  I have plenty of #8 mesh scraps from making other bee stuff that I could fashion into some.  I only have three queen clips and wouldn't want them all dedicated to swarms.  However, I have not had one single swarm fly away on me in the 20 or so I have captured.
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Offline Jen

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Re: Caging queen/swarm
« Reply #7 on: April 26, 2014, 01:48:16 pm »
Thanks Scott ~

If I sounded snarky... I was... sorry  :)  just tired, which tells me that I probably shouldn't be posting at 11:00pm ~
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