Thanks for all the ideas in making a swarm box. I hung it up in the oak tree outside the front of the house. Made some swarm paste from Linda's blog. I have one frame of old comb out of an old tree and two new frames with foundation. Came home today and many bees going in and out.
How long before I take it down to see if there is a queen inside? Do I put them in a nuc or in a deep. I have no frame with drawn out comb. I am sure I need to feed them to draw out the comb. Need some advice on the best way to go from here.
Thanks Dennis
Activity is nice but I watch for bees going in with loaded pollen baskets. If they're carrying pollen there's brood to feed, and a colony inside. Good Luck!
I certainly hope you don't mean you have only 3 frames in a 10 frame box. If so, you better get 7 more in very quickly, or you are going to have the worst mess you have ever seen in a bee hive. They will not use the frames until all open space has been filled with comb.
The box will fit 5 frames. I have 3 inside. I will watch them tomorrow and transfer them to a nuc.
You can put empty frames with no foundation in to keep new bees in check. Starter strips will work also.
DM--congrats! I don't have any help to give, but do you have a recipe to Linda's bait paste or a link to her blog? Thanks in advance :)
She's Tillie on Beemaster.
http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/ (http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/)
Thanks much!
http://picasaweb.google.com/linda.tillman/TryingToLureASwarmToMyDeck# (http://picasaweb.google.com/linda.tillman/TryingToLureASwarmToMyDeck#)
DM
Thanks much. I make lip balm and body balm, and this is just like that only scented with lemongrass. I think next time I will use old comb and leave the nasties in the balm to further attract (hopefully) the swarms.
Dennis--What's the latest on your swarm?
As of today, I am not sure if it was a swarm? Yesterday there was a steady flow of bees going in and out of the swarm box. This morning and throughout the day there was only a few that were going in and out. The only thing I can think of is they maybe scout bees checking it out? So time will tell. I am still reading and learning.
Dennis
I have picked up two real nice swarms in bait hives this year and thought I had another one the other day, probably a hundred bees on the face of the hive and they were going in and out. I waited two more days to bring them home and went and got the hive after dark, the next morning when I opened them up found I had an empty bait hive? They had either moved on or it was a bunch of bees just seeing if anything was in the old comb! The other two bait hives produced nice swarms about two weeks ago and now have eggs and larva in them. I figure about a week on both and they will need a second box.