My first one from my home made swarm catcher. Now what? I build a hive that I will dump them in this evening. Give me some pointers and wish me luck!
Last year I had good luck catching 6 swarms with 10 traps. I made mistakes, left in trap to long, poor ventilation in trap. I have a friend, also a beek that takes them out ASAP, he caught 40 swarms with 27 traps last year. This year I am not having any luck and I have comb in every trap, last year I had no comb as I was restarting after many years with no bees. Feed them to give them a reason to stay.
I have had my traps out for weeks and all my friends have had success. I just plan to place them in a 10 deep super and feed them. I'm waiting for the evening. I should smoke them right?
Do you have frames in the trap? How long have they been in the trap? Are you going to move them? If they have frames in the trap, I would wait a few days until they have had a chance to have some brood to anchor them. If not I would put a queen excluder(includer) in between the bottom board and the super to keep the queen in the box for a couple days. There is always the chance they won't like their new home. If they haven't been in the trap for long it should be about the same as dumping a package. Good luck.
Well done.
Thanks! I think they have been there 3-4 days with only one frame. I'm in a position I have to put them in tonight. I have queen excluder I will try and feed them.they are still pretty active right now.
Nevermind everybody. They left! Guess I wasn't fast enough. I have a trap at home, nothing so far. This is the one 45 minutes away where my hives are. They could have been there for a bit. I had one old frame that had some honey in it. They ate all that! I reset it and will try again
Art
Quote from: FlexMedia.tv on May 29, 2017, 11:30:03 PM
I had one old frame that had some honey in it. They ate all that! I reset it and will try again
If there is honey on the comb that you have in your trap is was probably a bunch of foragers having a feeding frenzy. If they are there during the day and leave at night is a good indication that that is what is happening.
It happens .
Yup. Live and learn! More education for the next one!
Thanks,
Art
Art,
Why were you waiting till dark to move them into a hive? If anything, wait till evening to move them to your apiary. Even that is being challenged as they may move back out before nightfall. Don't try to work bees at night. They get very defensive. Move them to your new location and then move them into the new box.
I like to give them a week to fill in the trap.
Bee sure to have all of the frames (empty) in the trap. I use one old frame of drawn comb in the trap with the rest empty.
The honey just causes a robbing situation that looks like a swarm.
Jim
Quote from: sawdstmakr on May 31, 2017, 01:46:08 AM
Art,
Why were you waiting till dark to move them into a hive? If anything, wait till evening to move them t
Jim,
I thought I said evening. I meant later in the day. I did it all wrong. I only put one frame in the box total, the old frame from a hive that had a little honey left over. I guess I should have read more about it and filled it with new frames. I was thinking how you dump them into the hive with all the frames? Do you take all the frames out and place them in the new? Maybe they will give me another chance.
:-)