[Wil]

Same thing here. A late swarm moved in here and I thought of just leaving them to their own habits until Spring so I eft them and just kept visiting them every couple of days to see how they were doing. Eventually, they just moved on and I am guessing that they went back to the hive they came out of.My homemade swarm trap holds 5 deep frames. That is propolis and beeswax smeared on the outside of the trap.

 

[Wil]

I think that would be a great idea. Sounds like it should work. I looked up plans for mine but if you do a search for homemade swarm traps, you will be amazed what great minds come up with and would be legal in your neck of the woods. Most are rather simple and I like that. Mine,that you see above in the post is rather heavy with 5 frames of bees moved in. I now refrain from locating them higher then I can reach from the ground or from the back of my ATV. Good to have a pulley anchored above also for lowering if no help is around.

 

[Wil]

yes, if you get bear activity I imagine the extra height and pulley system could be handy. I will have another look around for swarm traps. Spring here, i can feel the quickening as if the sap is in my veins and its hard not to be excited. Although if you guys are dry up there, you'll know we're wet down here, hasn't stopped raining for a year and longer now, Eucalyptus forest all putting energy in vegetative growth and not a flower bud in sight. Most eucs will carry their buds for 6- 12 months before flowering. Lucky my planted flowering trees and bushes are established and starting to put on a good show- closest bees are the first to get there for pick of the bounty. Even so a token picnic- will be another very lean year. ( although even though i didn't get honey last year, I did plunder the crap out of one hive for a nuc split and everyone but me in my bee club sugar supplemented last season so token plantings must have some merit. Every plant i plant is for bees. yeah i get a just little obsessive.

I feel sorry for you. I sure know what wet is because of continued raining. I served two tours in Vietnam and experienced two monsoon seasons. I never thought it would end. We were constantly wet either from rain or from sweat and no relief in sight because we had to live out in it in the jungles. No luxury to having shelter except for a poncho.
Because of beekeeping and believe me, I am very new at it, I am finding value in planting everything I can for the bees. I even have an app on my phone to identify what weed I am looking at. Before bees, a weed was a weed. I am even visiting my local nursery more then I ever did. Now we are on a first name basis.

 

[Wil]

I'm wondering the same. I might put them in a deep or NUC so that I could get them winterized properly so as to give them the best chance of survival through winter. In that swarm trap in my picture, there is quite a bit of room in the bottom below the deep frames. I captured a swam in the beginning of the swarm season but left them in there to long by the time I noticed that they were permanent residents. They built comb clear to the bottom of the box and it was all I could do to transport the frames over to a deep box. All 5 frames in the swarm trap were packed with bees and no more room for parking.

 

[Wil]

Darn,I never gave it a thought about the chemicals they hit the commercial plants with. I surely didn't know that the chemicals stay in all parts of the plants for their life either. I just bought some Sedums and Hysoops yesterday and planted them in my raised bed.

 

[Wil]

I have never been a very good gardener, never had a green thumb. My vegetable gardens are always a hit and a miss because of fighting weeds and what nots, the what nots being pesty bugs that do my plants in. I don't like to toss insecticides on my plants.
I've been pretty busy these past couple days with tilling and running the disc with the tractor on a large section of my property so I can plant Milkweed seeds. I found two Swam Milkweed plants growing on my property. Yo would think that in 45 acres, I would find more but two is all I found. I gathered pods from them and my beekeeping friends came through and gave me some of their pods so now I have my work cut out for me. I think soon, it will be good to go ahead and plant them. I tried the cold stratification last year and put some seeds in the frig but they never came up so I thought about how Milkweed pods open up in the fall and are carried off by the wind to spread their own way. Good enough for them, good enough for me.
I think you are going to have a very interesting swarm season. Your mixture sure sounds like it will draw the scouts in without hesitation. Must give a full report on out swarm trap outcomes.

 

[Wil]

I have tons of milkweed and golden rod all over the place, I get thousands of the monarch butterflies each year on my property as the milkweed is their food....I figured most open land would have the same...but I guess not...

Exactly, I thought the same thing. My one neighbor, although a mile from me has probably a whole acre of Milkweed on his 2 acres of ground. I on the other hand feel very neglected with having 45 acres of fields, woods and marsh land and only found two plants.