Beekeepers - working any swarms?

[Mike Henderson]

I got another hive yesterday. A friend called me and reported that bees had taken up residence in a irrigation box at the local middle school. So he and I went there and got them. They had just settled in - only had a small amount of comb and no eggs yet. Since there wasn't much comb, I had to vacuum them up (I made a bee vacuum a while back).

I gave them a frame of brood from my other hive and put them in a regular hive. Now, I just have to hope that i got the queen. It's possible that they could make a queen from the brood I gave them - if the queen is missing - but that's hit-or-miss and will set them back even if they do make a new queen. I'll go see if a queen is available from a queen supplier. I'd need to get it fairly quickly and right now they're backlogged.

Regarding making beekeeping equipment - it's very easy to make providing you buy your frames and only make the main part of the hive. You can find inside dimensions for 8 and 10 frame hives, and for smaller nucs, on the web. Given those dimensions, any of you can build a box, which is all a beehive is. I build them with dovetails just for the practice.

I even built a "top frame hive" and documented the build process if anyone wants to build one themselves.

Frames are cheap and they're process intensive if you make them yourself. Much easier to buy them.

Mike

[Mike Budzynski]

No swarms yet in the area - still a little cool here.

My one hive that swarms every year doesn't look like it this year - at least so far.

[Jim Becker]

We have a new NUC of local bees joining our family on Sunday...no swarming here yet...still a bit of wonky weather. 44º today. 82º next Tuesday.

[John K Jordan]

... a book out called Build Your Own Beekeeping Equipment...

Tony, I got my copy the other day from Amazon. Looking through it should be helpful. I like the handles fastened on the outsides of the boxes with screws. I've always routed handles when I made boxes; looks good but takes longer. (I make boxes from eastern red cedar.)

I admit I've never heard of a slatted rack to provide space under the brood chambers so I had to do some google hunting. I don't know any beekeepers around here that use them. In the hot summer sometimes a lot of bees hang outside from the porch. The winters here are relatively mild. (All beekeepers I know use screened bottom boards year-round.) I'll have to make one and try it. I did wonder about a couple of things. If the slots are aligned intentionally to let mites fall through, it seems like the flat board at the front would be a mite catcher. Perhaps something with sideways angled slats would deflect the winter wind and still let mites fall through.

I like the frame-building aid with the simple clamp - I'll make one of those. The jig to assemble frames looks good but I've never had a problem inserting the foundation wax. Perhaps that's because I use frames with two narrow slats with an open-bottomed slot between them. I insert one corner of the bottom of the wax first on one end, then ease the rest of the wax sheet into the slot while rotating it.

I like your very colorful hive bodies! Mine are all boring shades of white, grey, brown, green...

I enjoyed seeing the variety of swarm-catching things you show. I've used the bucket method before and I use a bag now. In fact, I use a combination of a part of a 5-gallon bucket and a bag. In case you or anyone is interested:

I cut a ring off the top of a 5-gal bucket and fasten a handle made from a paint roller handle, then hang a bag through the ring, holding it with some wire. The bag is what the local farmer's co-op uses when they bag bulk seed. Strong and very inexpensive.

I use this with an extension pole that will reach to about 24'. The ring/bag bumps the limb and the bees drop in as you mention, then I twist the handle to fold the bag over to keep them inside. This was important when getting the swarm high in the pine tree since there were so many limbs as obstacles it took me a while to get the bag down.

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I experimented with a couple of versions of this. For the most strength, I bend the steel rod into a wide flat-bottomed "U" shape, drill a hole straight down in the rim against the side of the bucket and insert the short side of the "U" into the hole, then cut a slot for the long side of the "U". I used some soft wire to hold this on - extremely sturdy. (I've been using this for a number of years now.)

One thing I found important - if the handle is angled away to the left, the weight of the ring and bag will tend to keep the screw thread tight. If mounted in the other direction, the weight will tend to unscrew the handle from the extension pole.

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JKJ

[Jim Becker]

John, we put in slatted racks this past year and hopefully the bees benefitted from them.

Interestingly, Facebook just reminded me that today (literally) is the one year anniversary of Professor Dr. SWMBO hiving the first colony.



And at noon, we're picking up a local genetics NUC to add to the two colonies that successfully overwintered and are doing well. While we had three for most of the summer, a fall combine was necessary due to a queen gone bad. So we'll be back to three and plan on trying some splits once things get cooking here with coming warm weather.
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On box handles, I have used applied handles on the 5-frame NUC boxes I built, but routed handles in the 10-frame boxes using a template I made that clamps to the box side. I build the boxes using the rabbit method as I don't have the easy ability to do box joints. Honestly, the cost of materials to build boxes versus taking advantage of a case of unassembled boxes on sale from Mann Lake is no contest. There's a case on the shelf ready to build when we need them. So I mostly build the other stuff from scraps.

[Jim Becker]

The new girls have arrived...local genetics, too...

[John K Jordan]

The new girls have arrived...local genetics, too...

Excellent! I love installing a new nuc. I see they are using the new corrugated nuc boxes too - our supplier started using those this year after years of using boxes made from 3/4" OSB.

Good luck with the nuc. It is amazing how fast they can build up. A few years ago I got one that exploded with activity and ended up producing a few supers of excess honey the first year. The second year it produced about 24 gallons of honey. That hive is already heavy with honey this year - I have three supers on it.

BTW, a few years ago my bee mentor talked me into going to two deep boxes for a brood chamber. I do that with all my hives now and rotate them to try to get them to store more honey there. In the strongest hive I also left a super full of honey over the winter so they are now using two deeps and one shallow box for the brood chamber. I don't know whether that's a good idea or not in the long run but for now it's one incredibly strong hive.

I'm headed out just now to top off the feeder in the new hive from the caught swarm a week ago. I'm slowly switching to frame feeders instead of top feeders - one feeder replaces one deep frame in the brood chamber. I get too many ants in the top feeders but the bees seem to keep them out of the brood chamber. I think the frame feeders disrupt the air circulation less but I can't prove that.

One question: when you inspect/work the hives do you use a table or temporary stand behind the hives to stage the boxes? I've always left enough room between the hives to put the top cover and boxes right next to the hive when taking it apart. If I put the hives closer together like yours I would have room for far more hives in my little apiary. (I use two 10' long steel channels on top of double concrete block to support the hives and have two of those stands in one spot.)

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

John, the corrugated NUC box is one of ours...we brought it with us. Barry (the source for today's bees) builds a bunch of quick and dirty OSB NUC boxes for his re-sale efforts because a lot of newbies don't have their own transport boxes. The OSB thingies he builds cost him less than buying the corrugated versions. His bees are great so we're happy to add another colony of them to our hopefully growing "bee city".

The singular thing with sourcing bees from him we don't prefer is that he provides the bees on deep frames. We prefer mediums, but have worked things out to use the few deeps we have as brood chambers on the bottom for "his" bees and mediums from there in the stack. Another local beek we've sourced bees from (the existing colony next to the new one) provides on mediums. That said, two deeps or three mediums is a typical brood setup, so it really doesn't matter as long as you provide the required space for a strong colony.

On your question, Professor Dr. SWMBO found a couple of cheap folding patio tables that she can easily carry to whatever hive(s) she's working on to set down certain items. She doesn't usually put boxes on the table, however, because that's an "accident waiting to happen". She'll stack the boxes on top of the telescoping cover in opposite order as she works down from the top so things stay steady.

We chose to go the solid block route for our hive stands as we don't have much of an ant issue (at least of the type that will go after things) and they are relatively inexpensive. I set them level and then paint them dark brown so they disappear into the landscaping. I'll soon be creating another platform for a couple more hives as we only have 'one spot' left right now which is sized for either a 10 frame stack or two NUC stacks.

I got our first swarm trap mostly build this afternoon...a little more work to do, but it's more or less patterned after the ones in that link I provided earlier.

[John K Jordan]

I wish I had my swarm traps made and up.

I was clearing today with the bobcat about 100' from the hives when I noticed a big swarm circling in the air overhead. I watched it swoop and swirl 20-40 ft in the air while drifting into the trees to the south west, in the general direction of my barn. I couldn't find it with a long walk.

I don't know if it had just exited a hive or if it had just left a a tree after hanging around 1/2 the day. This was about 1:30 and the last I checked the hives was 6am.

I hate to see 20000 of my bees disappear over the horizon. Oh well!

JKJ