I checked on my swarm trap tonight.

BeeMaster2 · May 03, 2014, 12:45:00 AM

I went out to check on my swarm traps tonight. Last week I had a lot of activity at one trap but I didn't think they had moved in yet. When I turned the corner and saw the trap, it had a huge swarm hanging from the bottom and sides. It was much larger than a basket ball. I ran back to the house, told my wife, and we took a 2 medium, drawn frames, hive out there. I lowered the hive down using the rope, and placed it next to the hive. They were all over the entrance but they did not start marching in. I opened the top and shock them into the hive. It took a long time for them to move in. There is a pure white 4" by 6" piece of comb hanging from the bottom of the hive. That means that they have been in and outside of this trap for at least a week. I left and came back after dinner and put the lid on, it was raining. There was still lots of bees between the hives. Tomorrow, if the weather clears up, I plan on adding another super and put the frames from the trap in the hive with some foundation frames.
Jim

tefer2 · May 03, 2014, 09:08:26 AM

Nice Jim, nothing better than free bees. I have a feeling that after this long cold winter there won't be many swarms around these parts.
Guess I'll have to wait until the blueberry pollinators bring their truck loads in.
It must be darn near impossible to do swarm management on hundreds of hives.
All I have to do is place traps nearby in the woods and wait.

Joe D · May 03, 2014, 11:11:19 AM

Good going, Jim.

Joe

BeeMaster2 · May 03, 2014, 01:28:57 PM

Quote from: tefer2 on May 03, 2014, 09:08:26 AM
Nice Jim, nothing better than free bees. I have a feeling that after this long cold winter there won't be many swarms around these parts.
Guess I'll have to wait until the blueberry pollinators bring their truck loads in.
It must be darn near impossible to do swarm management on hundreds of hives.
All I have to do is place traps nearby in the woods and wait.

That is where these came from. There are 64 hives that are about 200 feet away. They are here for the gallberry.
Jim

BeeMaster2 · May 03, 2014, 01:29:44 PM

Quote from: Joe D on May 03, 2014, 11:11:19 AM
Good going, Jim.

Joe

Thanks joe.

BeeMaster2 · May 04, 2014, 01:51:08 PM

Here is a picture of the swarm.
http://mywcwheels.com/bee345.JPG

I thought the bees had filled the nuc and were still hanging on the outside. When I opened the nuc, it was empty. No sign the bees had ever been in side of it.
I opened the hive and shook the rest of the bees into it, there was still a lot of bees between the nuc and the hive.
I went through the hive. They covered 3/4 of the frames. I did not find the queen but if you look at the bottom of the swarm you can see that it is rounded. That is a good sign that the queen is in their.
Jim

CapnChkn · May 04, 2014, 09:52:07 PM

That is a lot of confused bees!

Cedar Hill · May 05, 2014, 12:57:51 PM

Beautiful sight! Makes all your work and effort worthwhile!

SmokeEater2 · May 05, 2014, 01:50:23 PM

It's always a bonus if the bees will come to your house and save you a trip. Congrats!

BeeMaster2 · May 05, 2014, 02:07:19 PM

Quote from: SmokeEater2 on May 05, 2014, 01:50:23 PM
It's always a bonus if the bees will come to your house and save you a trip. Congrats!

Thanks.

greenbtree · May 05, 2014, 05:23:03 PM

So do you just hang the swarm trap? Do the bees care if it moves in the wind? Can you tell that I am new to trapping?

JC

ForrrestB · May 05, 2014, 05:52:12 PM

Quote from: greenbtree on May 05, 2014, 05:23:03 PM
So do you just hang the swarm trap? Do the bees care if it moves in the wind? Can you tell that I am new to trapping?

JC

Yeah, I have the same question, I always assumed the trap had to be well secured, thought they wouldn't like a wobbly hive, but I guess I am wrong - which is great, would make getting swarm traps high up much easier!

Variable · May 05, 2014, 06:27:20 PM

Jim,
Nice job and thanks for sharing! Hope those bees end up liking the inside of the box as much as the outside....

Did you get a pic of the fresh comb?

Again thanks for sharing.

CapnChkn · May 05, 2014, 07:03:23 PM

Quote from: greenbtree on May 05, 2014, 05:23:03 PM
So do you just hang the swarm trap? Do the bees care if it moves in the wind? Can you tell that I am new to trapping?

JC

I've hung them like that, it works good. What they don't want is the entrance not being where they expect it, so it can't spin.

BeeMaster2 · May 06, 2014, 05:13:34 AM

Quote from: greenbtree on May 05, 2014, 05:23:03 PM
So do you just hang the swarm trap? Do the bees care if it moves in the wind? Can you tell that I am new to trapping?

JC

Yes, it just hangs in the wind. I usually do something to make sure that it points in one direction only. You do not want it spinning 360 degrees. This one had the wire up and over the limb. Actually it was too far over the limb. I had a hard time getting it to come down with jerking it. Most of my traps here in town have a hook screwed into a branch and have a pulley and a rope. It is much easier to raise and lower. They spin more so I add a small rope tied to the back of the box and anchored to the tree to keep it from spinning. At the farm, some of them are close enough to the tree to stop the spinning.
Jim

BeeMaster2 · May 06, 2014, 05:20:08 AM

Quote from: Variable on May 05, 2014, 06:27:20 PM
Jim,
Nice job and thanks for sharing! Hope those bees end up liking the inside of the box as much as the outside....

Did you get a pic of the fresh comb?

Again thanks for sharing.

No I didn't. My wife took the pictures and she left before i shook the bees into the hive and exposed the comb.
I won't know if they like the new hive until this weekend.
Jim

brooklynbees · May 06, 2014, 09:40:54 AM

Beautiful picture of the swarm. Lovely. Thanks.

jayj200 · May 06, 2014, 09:52:06 AM

JC
when I placed my trap, we tied it to the tree limbs so it wouldn't move. the tree did move three to for inches.
and yes it was only at eye level.

when uniting bring it down they didn't even come out to see what the heck was going on.
these are the ones the got so HOT.
jay

Bobcat · May 06, 2014, 02:52:58 PM

Quote from: sawdstmakr on May 03, 2014, 12:45:00 AM
I went out to check on my swarm traps tonight. Last week I had a lot of activity at one trap but I didn't think they had moved in yet. When I turned the corner and saw the trap, it had a huge swarm hanging from the bottom and sides. It was much larger than a basket ball. I ran back to the house, told my wife, and we took a 2 medium, drawn frames, hive out there. I lowered the hive down using the rope, and placed it next to the hive. They were all over the entrance but they did not start marching in. I opened the top and shock them into the hive. It took a long time for them to move in. There is a pure white 4" by 6" piece of comb hanging from the bottom of the hive. That means that they have been in and outside of this trap for at least a week. I left and came back after dinner and put the lid on, it was raining. There was still lots of bees between the hives. Tomorrow, if the weather clears up, I plan on adding another super and put the frames from the trap in the hive with some foundation frames.
Jim

BeeMaster2 · May 10, 2014, 08:38:45 AM

Update.
I checked on this swarm last night. The front entrance is full of bees and through the STB I can see they are pretty well established. They were bringing in pollen so I will leave them alone. And let them collect their gallberry nectar.
Jim