Rich0909
House Bee
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
- Messages
- 169
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Ipswich
- Hive Type
- Commercial
- Number of Hives
- 4
...and other sage advice. Had a really informative talk on swarm capture at the local BKA a couple of weeks back - I thought the following might be of use given the recent absconding swarm threads.
The beekeeper giving the talk has a clever way of preventing the swarm heading off to a location of its choice - once in the skep (or box or whatever container) the skep is inverted on a raised framed queen excluder, he used 4 stumpy legs one in the centre of each side but I have used two cross pieces as the QE frame isn't very solid.
The skep is propped up on this initially but once bees are fanning indicating queen is present the skep is dropped down - the bees can now come and go through the QE under the skep but the queen can't leave (check no gaps around edge of skep) and they can be left to be collected at dusk with no danger of absconding. If you haven't got the queen no harm is done, the bees will just leave through the QE to find her leaving a few drones behind.
Once hived a strip of punched metal excluder is pinned over the entrance for 3-4 days until they are settled, or you could put a QE under the brood box.
In action:
Other advice we recieved:
- for a swarm in a hedge stand skep on top of hedge over the swarm with a good smear of honey in the top, give them time and they will move up, minimal smoke if any.
- for a swarm high up on a branch throw a weighted fishing line over close to the bees, pull a rope over, place white sheet below swarm with a propped up skep ready and give both ends of the rope a sharp tug, move out of the way sharpish...
- if you get a swarm call before 10am it is probably a swarm from the day before and you may not have much time before they depart to their new home.
Hope this helps someone.
Rich
The beekeeper giving the talk has a clever way of preventing the swarm heading off to a location of its choice - once in the skep (or box or whatever container) the skep is inverted on a raised framed queen excluder, he used 4 stumpy legs one in the centre of each side but I have used two cross pieces as the QE frame isn't very solid.
The skep is propped up on this initially but once bees are fanning indicating queen is present the skep is dropped down - the bees can now come and go through the QE under the skep but the queen can't leave (check no gaps around edge of skep) and they can be left to be collected at dusk with no danger of absconding. If you haven't got the queen no harm is done, the bees will just leave through the QE to find her leaving a few drones behind.
Once hived a strip of punched metal excluder is pinned over the entrance for 3-4 days until they are settled, or you could put a QE under the brood box.
In action:
Other advice we recieved:
- for a swarm in a hedge stand skep on top of hedge over the swarm with a good smear of honey in the top, give them time and they will move up, minimal smoke if any.
- for a swarm high up on a branch throw a weighted fishing line over close to the bees, pull a rope over, place white sheet below swarm with a propped up skep ready and give both ends of the rope a sharp tug, move out of the way sharpish...
- if you get a swarm call before 10am it is probably a swarm from the day before and you may not have much time before they depart to their new home.
Hope this helps someone.
Rich
