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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers
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- From: Randy Chellis <crandytoo AT aol.com>
- To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
- Subject: [ocba] large swarm caught, have questions
- Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2017 16:01:26 -0400
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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[ocba] large swarm caught, have questions,
Randy Chellis, 04/06/2017
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Re: [ocba] large swarm caught, have questions,
John Rintoul, 04/06/2017
- Re: [ocba] large swarm caught, have questions, Walter Starks, 04/06/2017
- Re: [ocba] large swarm caught, have questions, mark powers, 04/06/2017
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Re: [ocba] large swarm caught, have questions,
John Rintoul, 04/06/2017
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