I've had 2 hives just exploding this spring. They have almost filled out 4 deeps. I've been robbing brood and expanding the brood nests as much as possible. One of them started filling cells and I searched it for over an hour on Sunday, trying to find the queen and split them. Couldn't find her and they were getting prettiy cranky so I gave up and tried again on Monday. Still no luck finding her, but eggs present in the hive. Had a bad day at work and came home mad at the world. Took a stroll up by the hives and there they were, about 30 yards from the beeyard, about 3 feet off the ground in a honeysuckle bush. Grabbed an empty hive, threw in a frame of honey and a frame of open brood and shook em in! Went text book easy, right before dark. Strolled back to the house never happier to be alive. Crazy how these little citters can change your day! Lol I Love Bees! 😃
glad you got them back . i just got 2 nucs last week and watching them i was thinking 10 years ago i wouldn't come near anything like this, but as you said they really are fun to watch and very relaxing.
Other than a frame of honey. Would you all recommend doing any feeding on this swarm? We are coming into our main flow now.
Nope, I've never fed a swarm. Normally they swarm when there is a bounty in nature. I suppose if you caught a swarm in Sept, it would be worth feeding.
Congrats on your first swarm catch. It really does make your day.
Good catch, Dimmsdale!!! A medium frame of honey holds about a quart, a deep holds...over a quart. ;) The swarm has a load of honey in their honey stomachs, so along with the frame of honey and the open brood it sounds like you've got them on the right road!!! :) As for feeding, you can try a quart over them and see if they take it...just be sure they don't start back-filling the comb that they're building with it. Naturally, with a readily available food source right above them they will draw comb faster. Once the main flow is going they will probably stop taking the syrup as they do prefer nectar over syrup. Be on the lookout for ants, though, if you feed syrup.
Best wishes!!!
Ed