Brought home third swarm caught in one of my bait hives tonight!

[harvey]

This is becoming more and more fun!  I went out in the woods today to check my baithives.  The first two didn't have any bee's around at all.  The third was just going crazy with activity.  Bee's in and out.  Some fast some slow.  Not sure if it was a swarm or scout bees so waited till after dark and went back and checked.  probably a dozen bees around the opening moving in and out.  I put a piece of window screen over the opening and brought the bait hive home.  It appears to be a pretty good size swarm.  Wont know for sure till I take them out of the bait hive and put them into a regular hive, hopefully tomorrow.  That puts me at three good catches in my bait hives and one swarm from a tree this year!  Not sure how long my luck will last but will get this bait hive back out soon as I can!   I built two real pretty hives from scratch, bottom boards, inner covers and tele covers too.  Just cause the wood looked so good I used polyurethane on them instead of paint.  They will have to sit awhile to air before I can use them.  Hopefully by setting them out in the sun a couple of weeks will do?  

[D Coates]

Congrats!  I've got a total of 8 traps up in 3 locations.  I have had no success this year and only gotten 2 swarm calls.

[harvey]

It was a good swarm!  I moved it into a regular deep body  this morning.  Full of bees and had two frames almost drawn, (foundationless) along with working on the old comb I use in the bait hives, not sure but looked like eggs already in the old comb!  One swarm I got in a bait hive two weeks ago I had to add a second deep to today!  It was 100 percent drawn!  I had to retrieve one of my bait hives that I had made out of a Dadent deep as I needed the box and the frames.  I am going to pick up a 100 unassembled frames this week.  I need 50 for the hives that I have and figure another fifty to be safe.  An excuse to build four more boxes too!  Figure next year I can try my bait hives again and or split some that I already have as long as they make it through the winter. 

[AllenF]

Ain't that a good problem to have.   One can never have too many boxes.   Building that stuff is half the fun.   

[hardwood]

Man Harvey...you found yourself the "sweet spot" for sure! There might be several colonies in them thar woods. You could potentially milk that resource for years.

Scott

[harvey]

I have never seen any bees around the area however there are several old maple trees that are four feet or larger around.  All of them have large limbs that have broken off and hollows in them.  Again i have never seen bees in the area but they are definately coming from somewhere.  There are no other beekeepers in the area.  There used to be about five or six years ago a guy had a bee yard about 3/4 mile away on a farm.  He let his hives go so bad they rotted where they stood.  I don't know if I am catching reminents of those hives or not.  Either way will keep the bait hives out at least through June.  After that I might be scared they wouldn't build up enough to winter?  Course if they are going to swarm they are going to swarm and I might as well give it a try.  I have already figured out how to build the deep brood boxes, top covers, inner covers and bottom boards so why not.  I will have some extra frames around too after I pick up 100 next week.  That would let me go to another five hives!!!  

[hardwood]

That sounds like a good plan...but...you might want to pick up 200 frames just to be sure!

Scott

[jhs494]

Wow Harvey that really sounds like a great spot. Besides the bait hive I wonder what is bringing them there? Or are the stars lined up in your favor..
You better go play a lottery ticket. :-D
Good luck with the new found swarms, and keep us posted.
Joe