imafan26
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Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Bees swarmed and captured

On Aug 1, I started bee class. When we went out to practice lighting smokers and open up hives, one of our hives was in the process of swarming. They were like a bee tornado flying in front of the hive. We went to the other hives and practiced opening the hive and handling the frames. The swarm settled about 15 minutes later on some mulberry bushes about 25 ft away.

I did bring two honey supers in case we needed them, but we did not have any extra deeps. We already had a second deep on another hive trying to build it to split. So, we used the two supers for a deep, we did have extra bottom boards and covers so the instructor set the two supers next to the bush and while we finished working the other hives, we waited for the bees to find their new home. The supers were stocked with a few honey frames as an enticement.

Later he broke off the branch and set it in front of the entrance and gently shook the bees off until they eventually moved into the hive.

Elsewhere we saw a couple of bees duking it out, one of the scouts got to close to the cover from one of the hives we were working and a guard bee from that hive defended it.

After successfully getting most of the approximately 15,000 bees into their new home, the hive was moved back to the bee yard but on the side farthest from the original hive.

We have checked on them a couple of times since then and they seem to be settling in and it looks like they will stay.

Later the instructor said he will show us how to transfer the bees from the super to a proper deep.

I had my camera, but in the excitement, I forgot to take pictures. You just had to be there, it was amazing.

We have found the bees in the orchard after they had swarmed and captured them before, but this is the first time we actually saw the bees actually swarming from the original hive and it was probably the fastest capture.

The last swarm was captured, but they had been out too long, and flew away when we tried to move them back to the bee yard. The instructor said we would have had to move them at least a mile away to re-establish them, less than that, the bees try to go back to where they were.

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applestar
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Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

What a great extra hands-on experience! Sounds like fun :D

Will you be able to keep bees in your own garden, or are you going to be taking care of them at the other place -- can't remeber what it is but you mentioned herb gardens and stuff, right?

imafan26
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Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

My yard is to small and the neighbors are too close. I would have to keep them on the roof to get the 25 ft perimeter.

The bee hives are kept at the garden where I take care of the herbs. It has 30 acres and the hives are located accross from the fruit orchard. With this last swarm we were able to capture we are back up to four hives. The bees like to forage in the herb garden and collect nectar from the African basil and sunflowers every day. We have already pulled some of the full frames for the honey harvest. Our last harvest was in March.



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