Transfering bees to new hive box

philinacoma · November 25, 2009, 08:08:58 PM

Hi all,

I captured a swarm a couple of weeks ago and it took me a while to find someone who needed/wanted a new hive. The swarm was not large, possibly a secondary swarm, maybe a couple of thousand bees tops. All I had available at the time to put the bees in was a cardboard box. The person taking the bees from me supplied a hive box to relocate them into, which I did yesterday. All seemed to go well. I transferred the comb into a frame put it and most of the bees into the new box and emptied the rest of the bees onto the ground in front of the hive. All pretty standard.

I went out late yesterday, and it was the same this morning. Instead of the bees all moving into the hive, they clustered onto the outside front of the hive just above the opening. Any idea what is happening?

Thanks
Phil

iddee · November 25, 2009, 09:50:02 PM

No info to go by.....

Where are you?
was the other frames drawn, foundation, or bare?
Was the hive checked for wax moth, SHB, and afb scales?
Was the queen located?
Was there brood?

ETC. ETC. ETC.

philinacoma · November 25, 2009, 10:09:10 PM

Where: South East Australia

The other frames in the new hive box were a mixture of drawn and foundation. There was no sign of wax moth, AFB, etc. I did not sight the queen, but that does not mean she was not there. There was only a single comb present about 15 cm in diameter. The comb was very soft and I had some difficulty transferring it to the frame. I can not be sure that there was brood present but I have not seen pollen being brought back to the hive in at least the last week...

iddee · November 25, 2009, 10:35:08 PM

Since it is spring there and winter here, the answer ia quite different. :lol:

I would use something like a stiff sheet of paper and scrape them "gently" down onto the front landing pad. Watch for the queen as you do. They should immediately go into the hive. If not, they are likely queenless.

PS. Please go into your profile and put your location. We can give you much better answers if it is there.

philinacoma · November 25, 2009, 11:10:29 PM

Thanks, I'll check it out tonight when I get home.

PS: yes I did put a location, I think it just had trouble understanding it.

Lone · November 25, 2009, 11:52:03 PM

Hello Phil,

The other thing you can do is post your queries in the new Down Under Beekeeping Section http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/board,157.0.html That way, we can throw all sorts of useless advice at you.

I wonder why you didn't tip all the bees into the new super? Was there a reason for putting them on the ground? If the queen was in that second mob, they'll probably just follow her.

My mate in Victoria phoned a couple of weeks ago to ask me what to do about a swarm on his concrete fence post. I advised him to brush them gently into a box and call one of his beekeeping mates as soon as possible. I heard him mutter something about a broom, and I had visions of him sitting in the ute with the window down 2 inches trying to get them into a box with a long handled broom, which is exactly what he attempted to do, I found out later. I could only groan in despair. He had been witness to many of my beekeeping endeavours up here...from a distance of at least 50 metres (he reckons only 50 feet) and usually whilst lying down under a tree. I admit his woodworking skills came in handy many times, but his hands-on work usually left me holding onto a super with him wailing off into the bush weilding a big stick because a curious bee had come within a foot of his veil.
Anyway, it took a week for him to contact someone, and the bees had laid down just small amounts of wax on the post. The next phone call I got was that he was a beekeeper. His mate had set them up in a nuc box and left it on his property. You never know, Phil.

Lone

SlickMick · November 26, 2009, 12:12:19 AM

G'day Phil,

Sorry if LoneStar and I temporarily hijack your thread but you see our friend Lone IS the star of our Downunder thread giving sage advice to all and sundry.

That gal sure has a way with words and sometimes you dont know if she is praising or abusing you such is her wit. We sure would like to know where you live because that way we can usually find some contrary advice to confuse you with. You will find that the Yanks on this forum always try to give good advice but you find that it is usually useless to those on this forum cause they want to know where in the States you live and they are in the opposite season.

We have quite a list of entertaining posters on the Aussie part of this forum. Mick tells it like it is and his post on The ongoing tale of a fool and his bees is full of natural humour.

Gotta go now. Looking out my kitchen window and my bees are swarming.. bugga. Second swarm this week. Hope they land in the mandarine tree.. they are much easier to hive there

Seeya

Slicko

Lone · November 26, 2009, 04:07:09 AM

Hello Phil,

I was thinking, it sounds like pretty normal behaviour since their habitation has only just been changed. They are probably getting used to their abode, and where to enter. As Iddee says, they might need some directing. If they stay a full night in the new super, they are less likely to abscond. Maybe you can keep an eye on them tomorrow. The person you are giving them to will sort it out, and if they happen to be queenless, I'm sure they will be useful to add to an existing hive. Let us know how they go!

Slicko, I am no kind of star. But as we do talk the same lingo, you are probably one of the few who understands anything thing I type. I did spend 20-something years in Moonee Ponds, though, so I still recall enough Victorian to allow for basic communication. And speaking of swarms...I'll post a question for you on that DU forum.

Lone

philinacoma · November 26, 2009, 09:40:20 AM

Hi Lone and Slicko,

Things were a bit different this evening when I got home. They had started using the box. There was a lot of flying around and in and out of the hive box going on.

They did seemed a bit on the angry side. Enough to worry the wife and son. As my wife put it, there was a lot of load buzzing comming from them. This could have been from; the change in habitation, the inch of rain that got dumped on us this afternoon or possibly missing a queen. This was the hive that gave me my first sting for a long long time last weekend. All I was doing was sitting down near the hive to watch them comming and going and enjoy a nice bowl of food when one of them leaped out at me and latched onto my arm. Totally unexpected.

I'm not far from Moonee Ponds just a little North and East of there. Coburg. Glad you're able to speak Victorian. Ya get rul sic of truneslatun, ya kno.

See ya
Phil

Sparky · November 29, 2009, 07:50:00 PM

philinacoma. The next time you capture a swarm and go to put them in the hive, I would like to suggest that you remove a couple of frames and try and dump most directly into the hive. You can go back in a day or so after they sort things out and put the missing frames in. Another way you could take one of your old bed sheets and put in front of the hive and lift the box up in front and put just enough of the sheet over the bottom board that the box can be sat back down to hold in place. This creates a ramp that when you shake them on the sheet they can walk into the hive. They still may beard up on the front of the hive but will make it easy for them to find the entrance from the ground. They should move in even quicker if the queen was found and placed just inside of the entrance.