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  • From: Blair Christian <blair.christian AT gmail.com>
  • To: Marty Hanks <marty AT justbeenc.com>
  • Cc: "durham-county-beekeepers AT googlegroups.com" <durham-county-beekeepers AT googlegroups.com>, "ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org" <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Swarm catching gear...
  • Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 11:15:46 -0400

The file folders were Lewis' idea. Sometimes it's too hard to get the
box where you want it. You can use it as a dustpan to sweep bees off
of flat surfaces, as a chute under a limb, etc. Not critical, but
sometimes it's just what you need.

Chop sticks: I use them and/or the hive tool to poke through the bees.
If you have a dry swarm, it can be pretty intimidating, but if you
have a nice fresh swarm, you can poke through them for a few minutes
to try to find the queen. It took me a looong time to get good at
finding queens in a big mass of bees. I've done it 2 or 3 times in a
2.5 lb swarm. If they're on a flat surface (like a roof with asphalt
shingles) it can be easier. I try to give it a shot. It takes a
while to work your way up to it.

The original thought was that if I had the (a?) queen in a cage, the
swarm would stay. I had a couple swarms go into supersedure, so I was
wondering if I could somehow change that, maybe keeping 2 or 3 frames
of mixed brood in there for a day or 2, and releasing her on day 2 or
3 or 4. Experiment in progress. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
By marking the queens when I get the swarm, I'm better able to tell if
the colony did go into supersedure, and if they did, if the
replacement queen is in there (since I started marking queens I have
noticed several times where I was sure they were making a new queen
but the same old marked queen was in there a month later).

B

On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 11:04 AM, Marty Hanks <marty AT justbeenc.com> wrote:
> Blair,
>
> Great info and pictures, but can you please explain the use of the file
> folders and the chop sticks?
>
> Are they for when you stop for Chinese on the way?
>
> marty
>
> On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 10:31 AM, Blair Christian
> <blair.christian AT gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> It's swarm catching time so I thought I'd share my gear to help out
>> anybody new
>>
>> https://plus.google.com/photos/106022773068627809372/albums/5860766260679003249?authkey=CKfjnfSQ7Ii6YA
>> Not pictured: a little bow saw sometimes comes in handy.
>>
>>
>> Some stats from last year:
>> Swarm calls I answered: ~10
>> Actual swarms retrieved: ~5
>> Number that made it to last summer: 3
>> Number that overwintered: 0
>> Weights (lbs): 2.5, 2.5, 2.3, 4.3, 5
>> Number of times I used a ladder: 7
>>
>>
>> I had a number of "mini-swarms"-- less than 1 lb of bees + 1 queen,
>> which were not big enough to hive and I did various things with those
>> queens, mostly gave them away.
>>
>> https://plus.google.com/photos/106022773068627809372/albums/5795590192521436657
>> I think they came from Dave (?) Frupnicht? He has maybe 20 hives
>> about a mile from me, and might have some Russian bees.
>>
>> My hiving plans: I put them in an appropriate sized space (2.5 lbs or
>> less bees into a 5 frame nuc; 2.5+ lbs of bees into a deep). I try to
>> put a frame of mixed brood in, and at least a frame of drawn comb for
>> the queen to lay, and plenty of undrawn comb. I put on a full top
>> feeder and don't go near them for a week. I didn't have any abscond
>> with that strategy last year. Some will go into supersedure almost
>> immediately though.
>>
>> Game on,
>> Blair
>> _________________________________________
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>
>
>
>
> --
> Marty Hanks
> Just Bee, Apiaries
>
> Home of the Orange County Honey Project.
> "Created by Artisans....Bottled by Humans"




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