A BEE thread....for those interested in beekeeping.

[Boonie Stomper]

Hoping you catch a swarm.
I always thought they were caught when spotted and reachable by catching the queen.
My DM's old hives sent out a swarm that went behind the stucco on her house and caused significant damage before she discovered it bulging away from the framing due to all the honey!

 

[Rachealx4]

I should be getting my 1st nuc at the end of April/ beginning of May. It's kind of intimidating but exciting!

 

[CLSranch]

Hoping you catch a swarm.
I always thought they were caught when spotted and reachable by catching the queen.


Thanks and that is one way to do it, IF you see them leave. A swarm trap is a good way to set them up at friends house miles away, or in your yard so you don't miss them leaving.
Also if they have frames in them you can leave them until your ready without the swarm heading out for a new home.

 

[rebrascora]

Swarms can be captured when they cluster, by spreading an old bed sheet on the ground below them, shaking the cluster into a cardboard box or similar and then placing it upside down on the sheet with a corner propped up slightly to allow access to the box. I paint the inside of a suitable sized box with molten beeswax at the start of the season and bees can't resist it. Leave the bees to settle and then once Most of them are in the box, gather the edges of the sheet up around the box and fasten tight with a zip tie (cable tie) The bees are then safely contained to be placed in a vehicle and driven to the apiary to be hived. Drop them into the hive just before dusk and if possible provide them with a little old brood comb and they should settle and stay put. If they leave then you need to consider that there is something about the hive that they do not like. It may be that it has an open mesh floor which they dislike or it smells of newly sawn wood, which they often object to.....lightly scorching new wood with a blow torch and rubbing it with bees wax before you install bees will make it smell better.
The very best way to get a swarm is to make your hive or bait hive(s) sufficiently attractive that a swarm moves into it themselves. I have had swarms move into empty hives in my apiary but I also know of quite a few people who had never seen a swarm before in their lives or had any experience of bees, build a hive and bees move in. One lady built 2 top bar hives from old car tyres and 3 swarms arrived in her little garden to move into them in the space of a fortnight. She even had video footage of one of the swarms arriving and moving in.

 

[BW56]

Another thread I need to watch. Chickens, mushrooms, gardens, hunting, guns and now bees. This site is great. I have a feral hive that has refused to go into a top bar hive I built a year and a half ago. I'm going to try some lemon grass and see if that helps. They are in a wall of a building not being used for over eight years. Today my brother and I hopefully discouraged some bees to not take up house keeping in his bass boat. He said they weren't there yesterday.

 

[Leahs Mom]

If you could get the swarm to land in the bass boat, you could capture the swarm and move them to your hive

 

[BW56]

Not enough time for that. My brother was cleaning and loading for his upcoming fishing trip or I would have tried something for sure.

 

[Birdsong 82]

Finally I found a Bee thread!! We are getting honeybees in the upcoming months. First timers at the bees. My husband is doing all the research on this one but I had some be questions for some people who know honey bees

 

[rebrascora]

My husband is doing all the research on this one but I had some be questions for some people who know honey bees

Hi

Good luck with your bees when you get them.
Fire away with your questions but don't be surprised if you get more than one different answer. Views on beekeeping are probably more varied than those on poultry keeping, so there will probably be many responses and all of them could be right depending on your circumstances, perspective and climatic conditions. Being a member of a local group can be beneficial in that respect as you can get practical experience and seek guidance from people with knowledge of your climate and foraging flora.
I would recommend siting your hive somewhere where you can easily watch them flying on a daily basis. I have my hives right outside my kitchen window so that I can see them whilst I am washing the dishes. I watch them flying summer and winter when the weather allows and spend 5 minutes or so most days when I leave the house checking the activity at the entrance, seeing if they are taking pollen in (which means they are rearing brood - at this time of year here, they are just cranking up brood rearing) and what colour the pollen is and figure out which plants they are getting it from..... there are pollen charts that you can access online which look like paint charts with all the colours and hues of pollen and which flower they come from. Counting the number of bees in a minute entering the hive and how many of those are carrying pollen, gives you an idea of population strength and size of broodnest etc. The sound and smell of the hive can tell you things about their health and wellbeing. These are all things which you can learn just from external observation and that many people miss by having their bees in an out apiary or remote part of their property. Also, it can help the bees get used to your presence. As with watching poultry, it is so much easier to spot when they are sick or something is amiss if you visit them every day and develop that background sense of what is normal.... it is also pretty therapeutic and spiritual almost. There is something quite mystical about keeping bees....

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[Birdsong 82]

My husband actually knows three local beekeepers. The only thing he’s not thinking of is my garden. I know they will be beneficial for my garden in my garden will be beneficial for them which is wonderful. I love that. But like all gardens I do have pests. What I was wondering is what I can use to destroy my garden pests but not destroyed my bees. I don’t use chemical pesticides but even the natural stuff Can do damage to bees also