Fraid nerves of a rookies first swarm catch

GSF · September 22, 2014, 10:29:04 PM

Jedda, after losing a couple of swarms I got an idea from off this forum. I took my queen excluder and placed it under the hive box. Then when I shook the bees in and put the top on she was had. Some of the folks on here have said they've done that and seen the bees abscond from the hive, only to return again. Some where along the way to where they were going they realized the queen wasn't there so they did a turn around and came back.

Lone · September 22, 2014, 11:20:07 PM

Jedda,

Before they build up strong it would be a good chance to requeen and have some better mannered bees and hopefully nip the swarming tendency in the bud also. You will have a better chance of finding the queen in a smaller hive. Even if you move the hive to the Simpson Desert you are not going to have fun playing with your pets the way they are. I'd wait till they've drawn enough comb to get a new queen started then order one straight away. This is the right time of the year for buying a queen.

I've been advised to plonk a frame of brood in with a swarm too. After 24 hours or so in the hive you'll probably find they are there to stay, but trap them in a little longer if you are worried.

Lone

Jedda · September 23, 2014, 02:37:46 AM

GSF; that sounds like a good idea, I'll have to try that next time.

Lone; I think your advice of re-queening is the way to go, I've just got to get a normal bee hive going first so that I can properly manage them. The sun has dramatically got hotter over the last 3 weeks and the tree the drum hive is under still hasn't grown any leaves yet so I'm suspecting the swarming could be a result of how hot the drum is getting sitting in the sun.

I'm feeling like now I have a swarm in a box, once they have settled in it will make my job of getting rid of the bee drum a lot easier as now I have a backup hive I can use to deal with the whole situation; I either successfully cut them out and have two hives, or do some form of trap out and I recombine them in the new hive.

sc-bee · September 23, 2014, 10:07:04 AM

Quote from: Jedda on September 23, 2014, 02:37:46 AM
The sun has dramatically got hotter over the last 3 weeks and the tree the drum hive is under still hasn't grown any leaves yet so I'm suspecting the swarming could be a result of how hot the drum is getting sitting in the sun.

Place a sun cover over the drum. I imagine they are just crowded and after swarms.

jayj200 · September 23, 2014, 10:28:15 AM

if the mesh is too fine they wont be able to get out to collect food and nectar.

a queen excluder is all you want at the entrance.

#8 hardware cloth is to fine as it stops all bees.

window and pool screen they will chew up it is made of fiberglass

sc-bee · September 23, 2014, 02:16:45 PM

Quote from: jayj200 on September 23, 2014, 10:28:15 AM
if the mesh is too fine they wont be able to get out to collect food and nectar.
a queen excluder is all you want at the entrance.

Yes I agree....a queen INCLUDER is the right choice if no brood is at hand. And both even better.

Jedda · September 23, 2014, 10:23:03 PM

sawdstmakr you were correct, I had another swarm this morning. I walked around to check out the captured swarm and noticed the drum hive behaving differently so went and grabbed a camera and a chair and waited about 5 minutes till the swarm began. Had my 4 year old son with me and we watched the bees flying around in the sky for about 15 minutes till they finally landed in my neighbours tree again. My neighbour was home and in her yard this time so she was straight over. She was wanted to know if she should spray them with a hose to get rid of them which I told her definitely not. I had an inspection and offered myself up for sting sacrifice but like the other swarms were fine as long as I wasn't bothering them. I think my hat or my veil must have alarm pheromone on them as it seems that every time I'm wearing those items the swarms get agitated and start the head butting etc . After I showed my neighbour that the bees wouldn't be a problem if she left them alone she was a lot happier to just leave them where they are. I promised to remove them if they don't leave of their own accord in the next few days. I cant believe I have any bees left after all the swarming as this one was almost as big as the first!

sc-bee; I am going to do that today as I've got to do something to stop the swarming, my neighbour is not exactly pleased with the bee craziness at the moment. She told me she was home for the last swarm and came over for help but I wasn't home, but at least saw that they landed in my yard.

jayj200; We don't have hardware cloth over here so I've only got the fibreglass mesh to use. I figure it will take them a while to chew through it enough to escape so its not a big deal in this application as its just to keep them in long enough to fix them in place.

BeeMaster2 · September 23, 2014, 10:34:25 PM

Jedda,
If you have them locked in, bee sure to provide them with water.
Jim

BeeMaster2 · September 23, 2014, 10:58:23 PM

Jedda,
Also, if you see a swarm start, you can sit there and watch for the queen and if you catch her put her in a cage and put her in a nuc/hive and the bees will move in. If they do not move in, your queen is probably going on her maiden flight. Turn her loose.

Bee sure to listen to the drum hive for more piping. If you hear it, they are not done swarming. If it was a normal hive, I would say to inspect it and remove all but one queen.
Jim

sc-bee · September 23, 2014, 11:47:02 PM

Quote from: Jedda on September 23, 2014, 10:23:03 PM
sc-bee; I am going to do that today as I've got to do something to stop the swarming, my neighbour is not exactly pleased with the bee craziness at the moment. She told me she was home for the last swarm and came over for help but I wasn't home, but at least saw that they landed in my yard.

A queen includer is to hold a mated queen. It will do nothing for a virgin queen as she will slip through with the swarm. As long as they are housed in the drum and they are crowded they will swarm until repo season is over.

Jedda · September 24, 2014, 12:37:01 AM

I just went and had a check on the swarm and they have gone much to my neighbours relief. She was pretty interested in the bees and what they were up to once they were gone :-D

Another relief is that the myrtle tree the drum hive is under finally started sprouting leaves today, so hopefully they will have some decent shade in the next week or two because we are now officially in sunburn season again and there hasn't been a cloud in the sky for weeks. Guess I get to find out how bees react to the smell of sunscreen now.

sawdstmakr; I've been spraying a small amount of water on the ones on the flyscreen at the front. Not sure how much they need at the moment but figured it might be appreciated.

BeeMaster2 · September 24, 2014, 06:35:29 AM

Jedda,
They will need a constant source, especially if they are on the sun.
Jim

Jedda · September 24, 2014, 07:12:58 AM

Quote from: sawdstmakr on September 24, 2014, 06:35:29 AM
Jedda,
They will need a constant source, especially if they are on the sun.
Jim

Hey I finally spotted the quote button! Thanks, I will make sure they get plenty of water.

jayj200 · September 24, 2014, 08:31:10 PM

A kids pool might help

Jedda · September 25, 2014, 09:12:03 AM

Didn't have to worry about it today, we got our first storm of the season. The rain was so intense I found drowned bees in the grass in front of the drum hive, even on the landing board.

jayj200; I've got a small collection of carnivorous plants that need to sit in water, so the bees enjoy drinking from the pots. In fact they like it so much they jostle with each other to use them. Haven't seen any bees fall afoul of the plants yet.

Lone · September 25, 2014, 09:35:11 AM

Obviously being carnivores they don't like the taste of honey.

:-\

Lone

Jedda · September 26, 2014, 05:26:02 AM

I was outside in the yard all day today and witnessed some complete bee weirdness. First of all the bees were noisey and upon inspection it seemed like half the bees coming and going were drones. I watched for a bit and they seemed pretty excited and were really making a racket. Later I heard the bee volume suddenly increase and I checked on the hive and once again the sky was full of bees. It wasn't like the swarm I watched the other day as there wasn't a huge surge of bees coming from the hive and the swarm seemed to be moving too fast. As I watched to see where they would land, they suddenly took off into the distance at a fast pace and didn't stop. I thought maybe what Id seen was from a queen flying around the yard getting her bearings and then flying off for a mating flight, so I set up the camera to film her if they came back like they left but never got any indication of any change from the hive after that. If it was a swarm it was a very small one.

BeeMaster2 · September 26, 2014, 06:54:53 AM

Quote from: Jedda on September 26, 2014, 05:26:02 AM
I was outside in the yard all day today and witnessed some complete bee weirdness. First of all the bees were noise and upon inspection it seemed like half the bees coming and going were drones. I watched for a bit and they seemed pretty excited and were really making a racket. Later I heard the bee volume suddenly increase and I checked on the hive and once again the sky was full of bees. It wasn't like the swarm I watched the other day as there wasn't a huge surge of bees coming from the hive and the swarm seemed to be moving too fast. As I watched to see where they would land, they suddenly took off into the distance at a fast pace and didn't stop. I thought maybe what Id seen was from a queen flying around the yard getting her bearings and then flying off for a mating flight, so I set up the camera to film her if they came back like they left but never got any indication of any change from the hive after that. If it was a swarm it was a very small one.

Jedda,
I agree, it sounds like your queen was making her maiden flight. The swarming action helps protect the queen from being caught by flying predators. They saturate the air with so many bees that they cannot pick her out in the crowd.
Jim

GSF · September 26, 2014, 07:37:32 AM

I agree with Jim. I saw them return from a mating flight (I think). There was a ton of drones returning and coming into the hive.

Jedda · September 26, 2014, 10:47:40 AM

Thanks for clearing that up for me as I was only guessing. It was pretty spectacular to watch as they built up a lot of speed once they got moving. I hope she made it back, there's lots of hungry birds about.