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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Walter Starks <walterstarks AT icloud.com>
  • To: John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
  • Cc: Randy Chellis <crandytoo AT aol.com>, Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] large swarm caught, have questions
  • Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2017 17:02:12 -0400

You might also want to move a couple of frames of mostly empty or mostly honey drawn comb from the outside of the lower deep to the center of the top deep to bait the bees to start drawing out the rest.

______

Walter


You never can tell with bees. ~ Winnie-the-Pooh

On Apr 6, 2017, at 4:37 PM, John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com> wrote:

Congratulations! It sounds like you caught a very large swarm. Putting them in a box with drawn comb, nectar, pollen and capped honey is an excellent way to help them settle in. I would not be inclined to get in a hurry to inspect them or do a sugar shake. Give them at least a week to set up housekeeping. 

The call back to the site of the swarm could mean that you didn’t get the queen, or like you said it could simply be that you didn’t get all of the bees and the stragglers clustered on a branch to figure out their next move. Since the bees in your box seemed content I assume that you got the queen. If after you inspect them you find that you don’t have a queen you can add one.

If you got the queen and since they have drawn comb the queen will be laying soon. You should see brood after a week - after they have settled in. 

As for feeding, I would feed them at least until nectar flow is in full stride. But with the stores that you gave them + the stores that they will start bringing in themselves it would not be critical. But to get the foundation in the second box drawn out they will need sugar. So supplemental feeding will help get that underway even if they can survive without it.  

I suspect that more of us will be finding swarms like this in the next few week. Let’s hope they all settle close to the ground.

-John


John Rintoul
(919) 414-4071 (M)

No trees or bees were killed in the distribution of this message, but countless electrons were seriously inconvenienced.

On Apr 6, 2017, at 4:01 PM, Randy Chellis via ocba <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org> wrote:

Hi all,

I just caught a very large swarm ( I filled a ten frame deep and bees were still over-flowing to the lid)   I installed them in a deep with drawn comb, nectar, pollen, and some capped honey Monday night.  On Tuesday afternoon, I added another deep with ten frames (undrawn) and a top feeder.  the ladies were pleasant and seemed to like their new home (I'll see if they are still there after work tonight)  the next steps are what I need help with! 

    1.  what should I be looking for?
    2.  do I need to do a sugar shake and when?
    3.  how long should I be feeding then for?
    4  how long before the queen starts laying again and will she swell up large (so I can find her)  I'm really not even sure if I have the queen, as I collected this swarm around 9:30 Tuesday night in the rain

this swarm was the size of a basketball and had to shake it to a tarp and then dump it into my hive. I got a call to come back on Wednesday afternoon to get the rest of the swarm as there was a swarm about the size of a softball in the same tree, a few feet away from where I had got the large one.  Would these bees be some that missed my tarp or were in the air at the time I collected them?

when I went to get this smaller sized swarm, it looked as if someone else had cut the branch down and tried taking them and were only about the size of a tennis ball or less, left.  would this have been another swarm or just leftovers and someone else had collected a queenless swarm?

or did I miss the queen and they were trying to keep her warm (my understanding, is the queen is usually in the middle of swarm?  although I have a friend tell me, they thought the queen was at the top of a swarm?

If anyone could help out a beginning swarm catcher try to understand what he is doing, I would be so greatful

thanks, randy chellis
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