[No_Bivy]

So....I get a call from my wife around noon...THE BEES ARE SWARMING!, and she hangs up...

I head home and find a cluster has returned under the landing board. After about 20min, all bees were back in the box.....do what? Swarm? dunno. I checked the hive...one shallow 70% drawn out, medium fully drawn with 5 frames of capped honey.

I go all the way into the brood nest....find one frame with several queen cells(capped)...I see no queen. As I am putting hive back together I find the queen on the lid!!!! move her to the landing board, and in she goes.


WHAT THE HAY HAPPENED!!!! fake swarm......neewbee here if you have not figured that out.....banned myself from other places..tree guy extroidinere! jus kidding :lol:

 

[Iddee]

They will swarm again soon. She may not have slimmed down enough to fly. Maybe something else changed their mind, but they will go again. You need to take 3 to 5 frames of brood, pollen, honey, and the queen and put in another hive.

ASAP.....ASAP....ASAP.... Did I mention you should do it soon?

 

[No_Bivy]

crap....I wish I woulda known. I should have done it right then. If I go in at first light....can that work to split it into a nuc? 3 frames of brood?........im skeered, these ladies are rockin, and seems like splitting them will weaken them.

I did add a third super this eve.. reversed the first two and added the third........stupid aye? :?:

 

[Iddee]

Adding boxes was fine. I would make the split before 10 AM. If you don't, they will. Once the swarm cells are made, you can't stop them. You can only do it for them. Splitting them won't weaken them any more than swarming will. It may even give you more honey if you take a frame or two of open brood. "larva" They can then release nurse bees to forage.

 

[No_Bivy]

I roll by 8am....is really early..say 6:30 ok?

 

[Iddee]

Just fine as long as it's light and they are flying.

 

[No_Bivy]

I should leave the frame with the queen cells in the existing hive...corect?

three frames of brood + queen to nuc box?

 

[Iddee]

Correct... The queen leaves the hive, as in a swarm. Makes the others think they have swarmed.

 

[No_Bivy]

I understand.....early start in the am for me....

should I put sugar on them after? Poplar is full bloom here now.

 

[Iddee]

No need to feed during a flow.

 

[No_Bivy]

I'm goin in first thing...thanks.

 

[No_Bivy]

borderline temp this am....57...I might just have to let em swarm, or should I go for it?

 

[Iddee]

Just do it when you can. If they swarm beforehand, hope you can get them.

 

[No_Bivy]

Well.......I went in at 7:15. 58 degrees. Moved 4 frames of brood/pollen/honey into a Nuc. Get a call at 12:30, they have swarmed into a small tree. I go catch them into another nuc..

I go check the split.....most of the bees were gone. I guess they swarmed from the nuc. So I move the brood back to the main hive. Then head back to work.(10 tree removals to do) Get home, and it seems both are fine.....swarm in the nuc, brood back in the hive.
I guess the amount of bees that swarmed was probably less since they left the nuc and not the hive....

try not to laugh at a flailing newbee...ahahaha

 

[Iddee]

Welcome to beekeeping. The bees didn't read the rule book, so they don't follow it.

If it is a good size swarm, they should be fine. If small, a frame of brood would give them a nice boost. I do hope you had frames of some kind in the nuc. NEVER have fewer than max frames in any hive when they are building comb. They will ALWAYS fill the void before using the frames.

 

[No_Bivy]

the cluster was about the size of two grapefruit.
There are five frames/foundation in the nuc...I did consider a frame of brood,......should have. I guess I could add it in a few days..

Im still waiting for my log to swarm.....supposed to cut them out june 6 on a club field day. I am growing impatient though

 

[No_Bivy]

main hive swarmed again today. Two seperate clusters about 8' apart. Boxed the first one. Boxed the second one, and the first box swarmed again. They flew to the second cluster spot. Boxed them into the second box.,.....everyone is happy now......fun show. .....next the log hive I guess