Swarm capture

I received a call today asking if I was interested in collecting a swarm.  Of course I said, " yes!"  I was lucky that the call came from a gentleman who worked for a pest company so he gave me a clear description.

It's not unusual to get inaccurate information when you are contacted about a swarm.  If your told it's 10 ft up it could be 20 ft up. If your told it's the size of a basketball it cold be the size of an orange.  Needless to say descriptions can be amusing when compared with reality.  But a good description helps you decide what tools are required.

This time of year I actually keep basic swarm caching equipment in my car at all times.  This includes:  Veil, gloves, container (Brood box with attached bottom board), duct tape, and clippers.

I catch swarms in a brood box with attached bottom board because it's handy and then transfer the swarm once I'm home.  But since I have more hives this year, and I need the Bottom board, I'm going to have to come up with something else.  (You can see the staples holding the Bottom board to the Brood box in the photo).

Here are some pics.  These bees are very dark, as you can see from the close up.  I'm thinking maybe Russian.

I know plenty of people who capture swarms in cardboard, but I prefer something sturdier. I have a friend who captured a swarm in a cardboard box.  She wasn't able to go straight home and the bees ate through the cardboard.  I figure why risk it.  I'd rather not  have bees flying around inside my car when I'm driving.  Lol, it's a personal preference. #TNbekeeper

The walk away split-double screen

After doing an additional inspection, the hive that we created from the package is queenless.  So we took out the frame with the single queen cell and put it in a separate brood box and placed it on top of the existing hive with a double screen separating them. The double screen is made to offer an entrance for both the upper and lower hives.This is supposed to make it possible to combine two hives while keeping the queens from killing each other.  But in this case we are using it for a type of walk away split.  #TNbeekeeper

Lost our Queen

My husband and I did a hive inspection yesterday.  We currently have three hives.  One hive that overwintered, one swarm I collected about three weeks ago, and one package we installed about two weeks ago.

The package is the problem.  Since we are in our nectar flow they are packing it with honey, but we didn't see any eggs.  However, we do have four queen cells.  Three are on a single frame and and the fourth is on a frame by itself.  We are going to do another inspection today to see if we missed her. But since she was a marked queen and we didn't see any eggs I feel she is gone.

Since we have queen cells I'm not worried about re-queening.  What I'd like to do is pull the frame with the single cell and try and raise an additional queen.

When a queen is lost there are several options to choose from:

1.  Purchase a queen
2.  Pull a frame from another hive with eggs and insert it in hopes the workers will raise a queen
3.  *Combine the hive  (we've done this with a weaker hive in the past)
4.  What's currently happening in our hive-they are already raising their own replacement queen

*combining hives-we combined our bees by placing newspaper on top of a strong hive then adding the weak hive, minus the queen, on top. Once the bees eat through the newspaper they have adjusted to the queens pheromones and are incorporated into a single hive.

What you decide to do depends on multiple factors.  Some factors include strength of the hive, time of year, strength of your other existing hives (do you need another hive?)

There is no wrong answer just what works for you.

#TNbeekeeper

Introduction-The Unintensional Beekeeper

How did I enter into the adventure of beekeeping?    I love plants and gardening, and grew up on a nursery.  And I've always enjoyed watching the insects in my garden.  Beekeeping has always sounded interesting but I never really thought about the process or had any plans to take up beekeeping.

Then my husband heard about this new product being developed for collecting honey. It was the Flow Hive system.  He decided he and my 12 year old son should take up beekeeping and purchase a Flow Hive. This is where I think new technology inspires people to take up hobbies they otherwise would never have considered.

I decided to assist but let them manage their new hobby.  They started their first hive in April 2015.  They started with one package and one nuc.  They realized that the beginner beekeeping course is offered early in the year, usually February, which they had already missed.  So they started reading as much as possible and joined two different beekeeping associations.

I had been assisting with hive inspections, making lots of sugar water, and generally caring for the bees in whatever way I was needed.   By the end of last summer both hives were thriving and looking like they were set for winter.  Then we had a long warm fall and our strongest hive swarmed.
But we didn't know for some time.  It''s not typical for a hive to swarm in the fall.  I noticed low traffic in front of the hive so we opened it up.  There were maybe 50 bees and the queen.  And it was going to drop below freezing that night.  We had no idea what to do.  We didn't know if their were enough bees to keep the queen and brood warm.

That's when I became a beekeeper.  I stayed up that night reading.  I searched the internet for options.  When we checked them the next day the queen and workers were all dead.  They had gotten to cold. If this happened now I have some options but that evening I just had no idea how to save the bees.

I took the beginners beekeeping course this year and I collected my first swarm.  My husband was very jealous since he wasn't available.  I'm excited to watch my bees.  They are working hard and bringing in lots of nectar.  I'll update this blog on my successes and failures.  And hopefully something I share will help others with their own beekeeping adventures.

Happy Beekeeping
Tammy

#TNbeekeeper