I managed to hive a large swarm out of a 70 foot fir by scooping up buckets of bees until I had the queen, from the top of my 3 0 ft ladder using a twenty foot pole with a bucket wired to the end of it. I was just about to give up when I though what the heck do I have to lose... I dumped them into a brood box with combless foundation frames, a feeder, and two entrance feeders with water. its been two days now so I think everythings ok, any advice on what the heck to do with them now???(http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid208/p58693a556a3fbecc1dda91cc46fadfd1/ee52e69f.jpg)
(http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid208/p46f58e8fbe4879c2df146a8ca21b1ede/ee52e542.jpg)this is my first swarm capture as you can tell by the bait capture box, god bless duct tape... :D
Take them home, put them where you want the hive, and open the entrance.
I hope that box had some ventilation that I'm not seeing.
The box had a full entrance in the front, but it was the bait box i had strung up in the tree, which they didn't take to. (Or I didn't give them a chance to). This next picture is there new home and the bucket I scooped them with. Barbaric I know...They seem to be settling in now sucking back the sugar syrup. I was curious if anyone had any advice on whether or not to add frames of capped brood, or honey frames? My mentor said "Leave them alone for a few days" but they only have combless frames with foundation. Would it help them along if I added some established frames of brood/honey or should I just leave em bee?(http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid208/padf26868302c7be46a6623a5ea04008d/ee50e3bb.jpg) what about foundationless frames?
Our swarm is doing great. Taking about a quart jar of syrup a day and drawing comb like crazy. They will need a 2nd box in a few days.
Yesterday we took a peek and I spotted the queen. Finally. The whole time she was still The Barbarian Queen, she was elusive and we never actually saw her. She's been laying eggs because I spotted those as well. Now we need to know if her next-in-line to the throne has hatched and been mated. We weren't sure how long to wait until taking a look. They actually swarmed on the 21st. I didn't want to jump the gun and look too soon. But I don't want to wait too long either just in case they are queenless.
I couldn't help myself but to look today...wasn't sure i had hived them. They finished off the quart sugar syrup thats in the front. I filled the frame feeder as well. We have a major flow on with blackberries right now, i guess you have the same if your near any denise? I added a frame of sealed brood and honey as well. I'm curious how it helps. It was a bait frame for getting the girls to cross the excluder in one of my main hives. Before the main flow started i had to bait them across, now that the blackberries are on seven of ten frames in the honey supers are plugging up quickly.
We've got blackberries in bloom as well, but went ahead with the syrup just to give them a kick-start. All the frames were foundation, so they can use all the help they can get. We did borrow 2 frames of sealed brood and honey to give them a bit more help. They seem to be doing just great. The hive they swarmed from is still very busy and very full. They've been bearding like crazy because of the heat. We were over 100 degrees for the last 2 days. Yuck. It's supposed to cool down starting today. Whew.
Sounds like your season is similar to ours, the heat has been 35 degrees and supposed to continue for the week. I just added some entrance feeders of water (quart) to each hive as they are all thirsty and bearding at night to cool everything down, its soo hot. I was going to make up a screened inner cover today and just crack the outer lid a few inches above. Last night my wife and I went out to look and all the hives were bearding a lot, cooling down. Anyway thanks for the reply, its neat to know what other "local" westcoast beekers are doing and how your seasons going. I guess were only about an hour or so away. Good luck with your season! :D