Training a swarm onto frames

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Apis Mellifera

New Bee
Joined
Jan 9, 2013
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Location
Nr Rochester, Kent
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
1
I am relatively new to bee keeping so have not carried out this operation before. I had a swarm colonize an empty hive at the end of last season. I was advised to leave them to it and see if they over wintered, which they seem to have done very well. They have drawn out their comb from the roof on a frameless super and brood box and now I want to coax and train them onto frames. I have seen this done before by cutting out wild comb and binding it onto foundation less frames with woollen thread for two or three frames and putting them in the centre of the brrod box, filling the rest of the spaces with fresh foundation/frames. Can anyone tell if this is the best way to go about it?
 
What's directly on top of those two boxes? A crown board or a roof or a scrap of wood? Point being, when you remove it quite a lot of comb will collapse inside the colony. But I think the advice would be to carefully remove whatever is on top of those boxes and stick a box of frames/foundation on that, and then a feed on top of that. Colony should take possession of this top box allowing a re-arrangement of hive at a later date.

PS This procedure should have been done a while ago if you wanted to make a good job.
 
If they have not stuck the comb to the side walls of the boxes, then you can just lift the roof off. If stuck, you might have to go in from underneath, with a long knife ( i use a carving knife on my TBH), and cut the attachments from the side walls. Without any frames the comb is in danger of collapsing if it is not kept vertical!!!! So lift the roof with the edge of the comb facing you, and turn the roof over rotating it away from you.
Then you can cut up the combs to fit into frames. Rubber bands probably easier then tying string. It will be messy but should not be too difficult
 
Thank you Drex, the more positive advise the more confidence I have in attacking the task! I'll keep you posted of my results!
 
Please do not use woolen thread, the bees will not thank you. As for rubber bands, I've fixed many a wild comb this way and found they work fine. They also have the advantage of being able to place them on the edge of the frame and simply moved across when the comb is in place. If you are lucky enough to see the queen early in the process so much the better. Keep her safe in a ventilated jar or something and add her later. This should give you the confidence to get the job done quicker without having to worry about damaging the queen. good luck
 
Phew, you've got quite a bit of work to do, but you'll manage it. I helped another beekeeper deal with something similar last year. Two pairs of hands made it a lot easier and quicker - can you get somebody to help you?

Keep your smoker lit, it might also help to have a brush handy.

Masking tape works too, just wrap it a couple of times round the frame - vertically - a couple of times along the length of the frame. If it doesn't stick you can drawing pin it in place. By the time they chew it out they'll have attached the comb to the frames.

We did something like this (I may have forgotten something important, hopefully somebody else will notice if I have) :

Move the whole box to one side. Place a new floor and brood box in the old location, sides of the two boxes touching each other - you'll drop fewer bees onto to the ground, and there's less risk of losing the queen if you haven't been able to find her. The flying bees will (should) go to the new (empty) box, so you'll have a few fewer bees on the comb.

Carefully and slowly tilt the 'old box' backwards (away from you), in line with the way the comb runs, until it's upside down. Detach any comb from the sides of the box with a bread knife or something similar. Then see if you can lift the box away from the roof. If you're lucky you'll be left with a row of comb pointing upwards, but if any topples sideways it should stay within the roof.

Gently detach the piece of comb that's nearest the empty box and fasten it into a frame. Place in new box - against the side furthest away which will help you make sure they keep the same orientation as in the 'wild' box. Keep going until you've moved all the comb, then shake or brush all the bees from the upturned roof into the new box.

Crown board on. Roof on. Done!

There may be better, and more efficient, ways of moving the comb. :)
 
Lots of good advice so far.
I would only add that if possible you don't place any disturbed honey in the new box.
In other words if you cut comb from the roof and you have to open up a few cells of honey try and not put that in the new frame maybe just trim it off.
They may lose stores which you could replace by feeding but honey running freely may induce some unwanted robbing!

I hope it goes well let us know!
 
The 'wild' comb will be stuck to both the roof and the sides of the box. It's just a case of prizing the lid of as carefully as possible in the hope that the whole lot doesn't collapse and squash the queen. Cutting out the comb out from the inside of the boxes is unnecessary, but you might want to fit any comb stuck on the lid into frames.
 

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