So the wife and i came out of one of our barns just a couple of hours ago and she immediately noticed we had a medium sized swarm in one of our pear trees.
Here is where i pays to have equipment on stand-by ready to go. I had a full hive body, base, inner cover, top and one medium super all ready to go. So we went into our swarm recovery battle drill. She went into the house to "Bee UP" and i went back into another barn to gather all the bee swarm capturing gear and get it laid out.
First we put a light colored sheet in the ground. This will help bee's that fall into the grass find their way into the hive. Then i put the open main body as close under the tree as i could get it. I run nine frames in my hive main bodies and supers--cause that is what i was taught to do nine or ten years ago when i first started this. I've got spacers to make sure the nine frames have the right 'bee space.'
By now Mrs H is all "Bee'd Up" and ready to do the bee whisperer thing. These particular bee's swarmed from a very gentle hive of Italian bee's that we really like. I've a couple of hives of "russian bee's" and they are of a much meaner disposition. Instead of landing on a branch where they were easy to get at these knuckleheads had landed along the main trunk of the young pear tree. So Mrs H is gonna brush em into a small card board box and them dump them down into the open and waiting hive main body.
The trick is to get as many of the bee's as possible into the hive main body down on the ground. And MOST IMPORTANTLY--you've got to get the queen in there too. You will know if you've got the queen in their if the bee's on the outside of the box and down on the sheet all start lining up like good little imperial storm troopers and march into the box!
well they are all out of the tree and going into the main body--so we think we've got the queen in there. Carefully slide on the inner cover and pop the outer cover on and viola! A free batch of bee's courtesy of mother nature :-)
We will keep an eye on em the rest of the afternoon. Sometimes this works and you get a free new hive of bees--sometimes they decide they don't like the new hacienda and they fly away again.
If they are still in the hive in the morning i will put the blue hive up on a hive stand and focus on getting them up and running to make it thru their first winter.
Just thought it was somewhat timely and ironic that this would happen on a day you'd posted a ? about bee's so thought i'd post this
take good care
/r
Steve
Here is where i pays to have equipment on stand-by ready to go. I had a full hive body, base, inner cover, top and one medium super all ready to go. So we went into our swarm recovery battle drill. She went into the house to "Bee UP" and i went back into another barn to gather all the bee swarm capturing gear and get it laid out.
First we put a light colored sheet in the ground. This will help bee's that fall into the grass find their way into the hive. Then i put the open main body as close under the tree as i could get it. I run nine frames in my hive main bodies and supers--cause that is what i was taught to do nine or ten years ago when i first started this. I've got spacers to make sure the nine frames have the right 'bee space.'
By now Mrs H is all "Bee'd Up" and ready to do the bee whisperer thing. These particular bee's swarmed from a very gentle hive of Italian bee's that we really like. I've a couple of hives of "russian bee's" and they are of a much meaner disposition. Instead of landing on a branch where they were easy to get at these knuckleheads had landed along the main trunk of the young pear tree. So Mrs H is gonna brush em into a small card board box and them dump them down into the open and waiting hive main body.
The trick is to get as many of the bee's as possible into the hive main body down on the ground. And MOST IMPORTANTLY--you've got to get the queen in there too. You will know if you've got the queen in their if the bee's on the outside of the box and down on the sheet all start lining up like good little imperial storm troopers and march into the box!
well they are all out of the tree and going into the main body--so we think we've got the queen in there. Carefully slide on the inner cover and pop the outer cover on and viola! A free batch of bee's courtesy of mother nature :-)
We will keep an eye on em the rest of the afternoon. Sometimes this works and you get a free new hive of bees--sometimes they decide they don't like the new hacienda and they fly away again.
If they are still in the hive in the morning i will put the blue hive up on a hive stand and focus on getting them up and running to make it thru their first winter.
Just thought it was somewhat timely and ironic that this would happen on a day you'd posted a ? about bee's so thought i'd post this
take good care
/r
Steve
Last edited by:
Steve Hawley: May 1, 17 14:20