Today at 7 pm while i was spot checking some hives i notice large amount of bees in the air. finally i relized it was a swarm from one of my hives. they collected behind the row of hives in a pine tree. I put together a box with a med with drawn foundation cut limb, shook in box, closed top and left on top of ladder near where the had collected.
Now the big multiple question of what do i do now?
Please help asap.
Place a queen excluder between the queen and the outside world or they might go ahead and move out of the box.
QuotePlace a queen excluder between the queen and the outside world or they might go ahead and move out of the box.
I only put a medium box with screend bottom and a top together how do i do what you are talking about?
Place the queen excluder between the SBB and the medium super. This will prevent the swarm from absconding as the queen will not be able to leave the hive.
This is one of the few uses a queen exluder is actually good for.
Quote from: pdmattox
I only put a medium box with screend bottom and a top together how do i do what you are talking about?
Do you have an excluder?
Is the hive entrance on the bottom?
Place the excluder between the medium and the bottom. If no excluder then you will just have to take your chances.
you could use a excluder if you have one and put it between the bottom board and hive body or get a medium frame of brood from another hive and it will help keep them also...... a frame of brood always helps!!!!
It was dark but went out with a good light and pull the box off the bottom and put excluder on and will put a frame of brood in tomarrow.
Question- #1 Do i need to feed this new hive?
Question- #2 Do i need to move this hive to another yard away from this yard?
here are some pics after i got my head together and figured out what was happening.
(http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid210/p1002ab06f3fae2d3fbdcb10a23a31559/edff57d3.jpg)
(http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid210/pee3a08f6d578ca4197df11b141beb7ad/edff45a7.jpg)
(http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid210/pa1355310a59f38808e6e844e4cae865d/edff51c7.jpg)
(http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid210/pdc54bb2d1da909602da4d22cbf8f1e77/edff5db6.jpg)
(http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid210/p3bfcc7305f84f577f9f9900252026e41/edff5e72.jpg)
Quote from: pdmattoxQuestion- #1 Do i need to feed this new hive??
if you dont have a flow going and you put them on foundation sure you need to feed them, now if you gave them brood comb with some frames of honey then no......
Quote from: pdmattoxQuestion- #2 Do i need to move this hive to another yard away from this yard?
some might say yes and it could help but I will say you dont have too, just put them on the other side of the bee yard.....
good pic's by the way!!!
Why did your hive swarm? Does the original hive have enough room? This is not swarm season, I might be tempted to re-combine them with the original hive in fear they won't build up enough to overwinter!
A swarm in May is worth a load of hay
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon
A swarm in July...let it fly
I belive they swarmed due to overcrowding. The problem is i dont know which hive they came from. I opend #1 and found capped queen cells at the top and middle of two frames total of about 6 cells. so when the rain stops i was going to reverse some of the bodies and also make another hive with some brood and a frame of capped queen cells.
I think they will build before winter cause we really dont have a winter here and the fall flow is not even close.
I'm just a bit to the south (Pinellas co.) and, while they may need some feeding later, we don't really have a winter. Really just a cool period where lawns frost over maybe 3 times a year. Untill the January build up, the bees got by with less than half of the medium super of honey. It was just the honey I left on after the Brazilian Pepper flow. Basically, try to build them up to the point that they have the equivelent of a deep brood chamber and a medium of honey. I usually leave a medium on all year round just incase of a sudden lack of nectar.