Started with one swarm caught two years ago, split it last year into 3 hives last year, one died this last winter, the two remaining both swarmed here on the 1st and 3rd of may and I caught them.
One swarm stayed in the hive for 4 days before it left, we made 4 splits off the two original hives on May 4th, we caught another swarm last week on a post out in the pasture, and another we caught on a tree at a neighbors place just the day before yesterday.
Checked all (except the last swarm) the hives today and all but one had queens, eggs, and good looking brood.
The one that didn’t have a queen (something happened to the two queens in the queen cells that were capped when I did the split, killed each or something) had a bunch of eggs laid by laying workers (5-15 eggs per cell in the honey cells, in the pollen and brood cells), so put in another frame full of brood that had a bunch of eggs from one of the two original hives to get a new queen going and that would make it 9 hives.
Found weird looking pompom things on some of the bee’s feet and it evidently is just anthers that stuck to the bee.
Looking at making spots to attract miner bees and leaf cutter bees. For some reason Miner Bees are the top bee pollinating Georgia apple orchards at 4 locations. We have plenty of Carpenter Bees. Honey bees are on an off again as commercial hives move. Often not here early. Or sometimes in the 100’s of thousands in winter months working maple trees.
Hoverflies are a great polination asset for days too gloomy for bees.
Usually I just take a empty hive, put it right under the swarm that just landed and then sweep them into the hive and put the lid on. If they are on a small enough tree branch I cut it off and hold it above the hive that I take a couple frames out of and hit the branch knocking them into the hive and put the lid on.
A hive with laying workers won’t raise a queen. The easiest way to deal with them is to unite a queenright colony with the laying working hive then - if you want another colony - split them at a later date. We are far enough into the season now that I would not recommend a split until next year.
How to unite the laying worker hive? Easiest way is to shake all the bees off the frames of the laying worker colony and give the frames to a queenright hive nearby. Most of the bees will try to join the queenright colony which will kill any laying workers. If you need details, I can give a step by step process that is usually successful.
Hmm, I was wondering if laying workers would mess up the pheromone signals in the hive from trying to raise a new queen, thanks for the clarification. The frame of brood I did take from the big hive did have a capped queen cell though (I’m expecting it to still try swarming again), or else I would have just recombined it with another hive if I wasn’t seeing capped queen cells in that hive.
I’ve never seen a swarm in my life. I have always assumed people who catch swarms are because they have honeybees already and thier own bees swarmed or someone in thier known area has bees. There’s no catching swarms if there’s no bees around.
@Heath: I helped catch two swarms just days after establishing my first hive - a top bar - and got 'em into Langstroth hives a friend had ready to hand.
The first swarm was the size of two shoe boxes: wow. They collected near the end of a branch at least 20 feet up in a maple tree. My friend has a tall ladder, but had to get up really high, so I stood on the second rung to lower the center of gravity while he took a 5 gallon bucket tied to a pruning hook and shook the branch the swarm hung on to. Then he poured the bees into the box, went up & tried again. The first or second time he got the queen for we saw workers going into the box. He did it a third time & we left the hive box to collect the remaining bees. That night he collected the hive.
Second time around was a swarm about the size of a shoe box, on a low branch. My friend took out his hive box & set it within inches of the swarm. They walked in. Not at all dramatic. Again, he collected that box after nightfall.
I made a hive with precious little building skills. The bees have done extremely well, especially since being introduced to the hive box in the midst of sweet cherry bloom - enormous amounts of nectar. They could use the nectar directly to make wax and comb.
In the second photo, the black spot way above the passing truck is the swarm.
Regarding my hive body, it is made with some purchased and scrap lumber & a bit of roofing. I doubled the sloping sides so they are 1 1/2" thick instead of only 3/4" thick, with a layer of bubble wrap & a sheet of mylar between. Maybe this will help them stay warm in winter & conserve honey.
Two more hive boxes are in the process of building. I have some 2 x 6 western hemlock boards - heavy and dense. Maybe they will work well, also. Worth trying.
I’ve heard to use felt swiffer pads on the top of the hive. The bees will shred it some trying to remove it and will push small hive beetles in it and they will get stuck and starve to death because they have hooks on their legs.
I have heard that too and also placing starlight ments or peppermint candy, someone said that they don’t like the smell and that helps to keep them away. I tried both last year the swiffer pads and the candy but couldn’t tell if they did work or not.
I guess that was the case with a hive that swarmed early in the season and left behind a small amount of bees, so the hive was weak and overrun with black hive beetles.
The first photo shows active comb drawing. In the second you can see capped honey while drawing comb. Also, if you expand the shot some you can see capped honey on a bar within the hive - same hurried work. The bees were otherwise untroubled by our presence; just a bit curious. We kept this session brief.
