Caught a swarm yesterday with Jeremy (his first)
We climbed onto a garage, cut some branches and shook them into a nuc box.
When we got back, we opened one of my hives, took out a frame with brood (majority was drones).
Tied it to a top bar of the warre hive, shook in the bees from the nuc box.
Will check tomorrow if the bees like their new home.
Let me know if they're happy in their new home! Only a few bees came back to the tree looking for their swarm, a couple hundred or so maybe. They were pretty upset that their queen was gone I think! Thanks for coming out so quickly and moving those bees to a better permanent home. The only injury is to our cat. She got stung on her nose sometime yesterday but she'll be OK.
ReplyDeleteHaha... everything that moves, cats go after ;-)
ReplyDeleteThey learn quick though. Our dog seems to step on some bees in the grass once and a while.
Sudden heavy licking on this paw.
There are always some bees that won't go in the box. I am building a battery operated bee vac today. That would minimize the bees left behind. And than the foragers and scouting bees that return will have to find a new place to live.
Yesterday I needed to open an other hive to get brood for this swarm.
Otherwise you have a 50% chance of the swarm leaving. I was standing in front of the hive, didn't smoke them. One bee was able to crawl in my veil and sting me on _my_ nose ;-)
Plus 3 on my knee, because of shorts only single layer of protection. So got nailed 4 times in total. But it was totally worth it!
Will post some pictures in a few days. will need to give them time to settle. Thanks for not killing the bees and calling me.