Just out tonight checking out the girls, both hives doing great. Looked up about 5 foot and noticed a small swarm about 8-10 inches round on a limb. Not my bees, mine are italian with noticable striping on their abdomens. These are dark black. Well I couldn't resist, so I got them into a spare hive body. What are the chances for a late swarm? I was thinking about stealing 3 frames of brood from the other 2 hives and feeding them like crazy if they will take it. The goldenrod is just coming into bloom around here so I am not sure how feeding them will work out. Any shot of them making it or is it just a waste of time?
Thanks,
Rob
Feed them. They will probably do fine to get through the winter. don't take anyof their honey this year.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
ask Robo, he's in you area, might be to late for that swarm unless you have a few hive bodies with drawn comb and ready to feed them heavy but Robo will know your area, with the fall flow starting and no drawn comb it aint looking good for them, if you have a few hive you might can borrow a few frames from each of those hives to give them a good start.... might even have a few tips to help them through.
I would place them in a nuc with 3 frames of brood and two of honey. I would then place an empty nuc body on top of the bottom nuc with empty frames for them to fill with the Goldenrod flow. I would also feed them to help them draw out the upper nuc body frames. I overwintered 2 nucs that were made up of 2 nuc bodies each in NJ. You are in upper state NY so I think the weather is a little rougher but I have read that there is a beekeeper in Maine and one in Vermont that overwinters nucs.
Oh well, it doesn't make a difference now. The swarm stayed in the box for 24 hours, then off to places unknown. You would think that they would have liked a hive body with drawn comb.
Rob
Guess I'm too late, but there is plenty of time left to get a nuc ready for winter. The key is to restrict their space to only what they need, make sure they have food that is obtainable (I prefer sugar candy right on top). You can also increase the odds in your favor with some supplemental heat (a 7W nite lite on the bottom works nicely).
I purchased an entrance guard from Miller Bee Supply http://www.millerbeesupply.com/Page19and20.htm it keeps queens and drones inside the hive so should keep the swarm from leaving which happened to me this spring. You could also use it to restrict which drones from your hives are aloud to mate with queens.
CWBEE's, all you need to do is get a queen excluder and put it between the BB and bottom hive body, holds queen and drones in the hive plus during winter it protects the hive from mice, they cant get to the comb