Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
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Sally Too
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Bee swarm saga! Again! 10/5/11So, about a week ago, OH (the chief beek) did an artificial swarm to split a colony into 2 nationals.
Unfortunately the stores he gave the old queen and the flying bees in the new hive actually had a queen cell attached which he missed! Duh!
So off they went the day before yesterday. Air was thick with bees - something like I've never seen before! Eventually they landed and he and I got them in a box in the afternoon. AND THEN himself the chief beek swannys off to Cork leaving me, 2 daughters and a helpxer to put the swarm in a Topbar hive at dusk.....
Well we sort of managed, but left a few behind.
Yesterday they all seemed settled and we felt smug.... until noon when - well things went crazy again. They landed in a gorse bush in a neighbours field, and I thought I could tempt them into a nice box again. But they absconded and I really thought I'd lost them.
However I looked out later and there was a load more activity at the top of the garden and they had landed in an old tyre. So out with the box trick again and they all went in, and stayed in. Yay!
At dusk we did a repeat performance, tipping them back in the hive. I added icing sugar this time instead of liquid sugar. But they wouldn't all come out of the box into the hive. We closed up the hive, and shook the extras vigorously onto the ground in front. Probably about a litre of bees.
Later that night there was a large cowpat of bees outside. I put some sticks from the cluster up to the entrance of the hive and hoped they'd crawl in.
This morning and the cow pat is huge, probably most of the bees! So - I've done a few things:
- covered the wire grill at the bottom of the TB to make it darker
- covered the hive to keep it cool (and damped the rug down)
- put a pole over the hive and down to the bees and created a dark runway up to the hive
- created a little light rain in the area to persuade them that today is a nasty cold day and that they've no business swarming today! I think it might "rain" again just before noon?
So tonight himself the chief beek comes home and I really hope I still have these bees!
Any more suggestions??
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Sally Too
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I think they're thinking of going again!
If they 'go' and I catch them again, I'll not try the TB but rather the National they were moved to originally.
Oh Boy! What a fun week we've had! 
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Tavascarow
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Sounds like the queen was in the litre of bees you left on the ground.
Covering the bottom mesh is a good idea.
I think horizontal top bar hives are to light inside without a covering.
A piece of queen excluder over the entrance for a couple of days to stop the queen from absconding again will work as long as she hasn't slimmed down to much.
Doesn't work so well with cast (secondary) swarms as virgin queens will often fit between the gaps of an excluder.
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Sally Too
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So twice today I've seen the air fill with bees, and twice it has started to "rain" and they've gone back under the blanket I've used to make the darken run up to the hive.
I was amazed that my "rain" seemed to bring the flying bees back out of the sky to cluster under the blanket again.
So now I just hope chief beek comes home soon to make some decisions. They are all for now still clustered under the blanket, out of the "rain" but not in the hive.
The queen excluder idea sounds good. I guess he'll be able to be more careful about getting all the bees into the hive. We were a little tentative last night! Trouble is as soon as you put them in they all start crawling up and up and then it's hard to close up.
I think all this stuff is called character building!
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Tavascarow
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If you have them on the ground you could put a suitably sized box open at each end over them & put top bars on the top to act as a lid.
They should crawl up & cluster under the bars then your man can pick them up as a whole & transfer them to the hive.
Thinking about it whilst typing a national brood box would be ideal.
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Sally Too
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So out they went again just 10 mins ago. I was starting to think it was late enough now that they mightn't try.
Our current Helpxer came in and told me. So I ran out to find a complete cloud - noisy and high. I randomly sprayed into the air with the hose before deciding this time "rain" was futile.
Ran to get my beesuit on with the plan to follow them - but when I got back out they had all landed and clustered round the leg of the topbar, under the blanket again. Amazing!
If I can keep them thinking it's a wet day for just a little longer......
Chief beek should be home soon...... Actually I think I'll phone him now.... surely he'll finish early today?
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Sally Too
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So he asked me could I find the queen!  
There's a laugh!
He says might try to requeen this lot. Find the queen (yea right) and remove her, then give the bees a frame with a queen cell (from the other half of the hive that got the house bees during the split - he "thinks" these should not yet have hatched) and see if they'll settle.
So that's one plan. I reckon we should just make sure EVERY BEE goes into the hive tonight!  
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Sally Too
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So they did stay put until he got home.
Then around 6pm we managed to get them all into a National hive. Only a few were left outside and they followed in quite quickly so I think this time we succeeded! Yay!
Here's hoping they stay put tomorrow. 
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kirstyfern
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So they did stay put until he got home.
Then around 6pm we managed to get them all into a National hive. Only a few were left outside and they followed in quite quickly so I think this time we succeeded! Yay!
Here's hoping they stay put tomorrow. |
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Sally Too
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So Queen guard placed over entrance and, although apparently tempted to leave, the bees stayed home.
They did seem like they wanted to move, but just buzzed around the entrance. So I take it they were encouraging queenie out, but she couldn't.
Hope they will stay. Guess we could leave the queen guard "gate" on for a few days?
No pollen coming in yet so we are not sure they are settled. 
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mochasidamo
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Giving them a small frame of open brood may help settle them.
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Sally Too
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Another swarm!
OH thinks this is not from one of our hives this time! He did a quick check on our other hives and all were populated as expected.......
So why would an incoming swarm swarm towards our apiary? (Can I call it that with 3 hives? )
Anyway they are all in a neat ball in a cardboard box under the weeping willow in the garden. We have a spare topbar and they are going in there.
PS The bees from the previous swarm are settled and bringing pollen. & all seem to be still present (as far as he can tell..).
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SandraR
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We collected a small swarm yesterday from the same paddock as our apairy. Fairly confident it isn't from our hives. I'm sure I have heard that bees will be attracted towards other hives by scent and you are more likely to collect a 'strange' swarm rather than your own.
Is there any chance it is a cast swarm?
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Sally Too
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I'm not sure whether these are a cast swarm. Our bees have come from 2 sources.
The first lot we got, when we started, are dark dark coloured native Irish bees and they swarmed the last time (the saga above!) and are now settled in 2 hives.
The others are from a nucleus we bought last year. The bees are slightly lighter in colour, but still native bees. This swarm looked more like them than the saga swarm did. However OH insists that that our hive is not depleted since we found the swarm ....
So who knows?
Anyway we've just watched them crawl up a plank and into a Topbar hive.... Fascinating! 
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Cathryn
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I had this idea that beekeeping was a peaceful gentle sort of a hobby. Your experience sounds edge of your seat exciting.
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Sally Too
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It has been a bit hectic lately! However it has been quite fun too.
Three of us (OH, son and I) sat tonight for ages just watching this swarm of bees crawl up out of their cardboard box into the hive.... very peaceful that was. All that was missing was the can of beer each. (On second thoughts that might have been frustrating, what with wearing bee suits and all!)
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Sally Too
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The first hive to swarm cast again today!
However OH is going to put them back into their old hive. He has removed all the queen cells formed before the swarm and is hoping to put the queen and her swarmed bees back....
We'll see.....
I think we still have a lot to learn. Text book is one thing - keeping them all right is .... well I think we're on a learning curve!
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dangerous
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You may have had queens hatch very close to one another so you might now have two queens in that hive.
As for watching a swarm hive....it's great how they just walk in. OH and I caught a swarm from one of our own hives without any protective gear. I had to lift handfuls of bees away from a tree trunk. They buzzed warmly wrapped around my bare hand....wonderful.
I popped them in a 14 x 12 brood box and two weeks later there are six frames of lovely worker brood.
I would have thought that a swarm appearing in the vegetation near your apiary had undoubtedly originated from your own bees whereas one hiving itself in a bait hive near your apiary has come from somewhere else.
It's very easy to think that because there are lots of bees your box hasn't swarmed.
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Sally Too
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I had to lift handfuls of bees away from a tree trunk. They buzzed warmly wrapped around my bare hand....wonderful.. |
