Jon

Swarm arrived in the bait hive

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Jon
, 04-06-2013 at 07:51 PM (14517 Views)
Just caught a nice swarm in a bait hive in the garden at about 5.30 this afternoon.

My garden shed where I store my supers, as yet unpacked this year, had hundreds of bees in it earlier this afternoon. I only have an apidea with a queen I salvaged from a dwindling colony in the garden and furthermore, these were yellowish bees.
I have 3 bait hives in the garden but the one they were interested in was a Payne poly box with the eke on so I guess near 40l capacity which is what Tom Seeley claims is ideal.
At about 5.15 it all went very quiet and then about 5.30 the air was full of bees.

This video clip shows them arriving into two hives but it is the Payne poly nuc on the left which was selected. Both had nice old comb inside.

I had to quickly remove my apidea as the bees had started to congregate around it. I remember Steve Rose posting about apideas getting suffocated by swarms as they are attracted to the queen inside.

They were all inside within half an hour when I noticed a wee cluster on a brick about 4 feed away and this had the queen in it.

It looks like a prime swarm and I have them out of the Payne nuc and into a wooden national brood box already. The poly box was packed.

Yellow mongrels, but I have a couple of native queens in apideas. I will let her lay up the box and then likely requeen it.

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Comments

  1. gavin's Avatar
    Lovely to see. Interesting that a Paynes with an eke seems to suit them. Easy boxes to lift into (and out of) trees and high places. Steve Rose - how can we tempt him back?
  2. Jon's Avatar
    Must send him an e-mail. Haven't been in touch for a few months. He spoke at Peter Edward's association in Stratford recently. I remembered his comments and saved my apidea in the nick of time. You can see how the bees piled into the bait hive on the right even though there was no queen in there.
  3. gavin's Avatar
    Bees can be so stupid at times.
  4. chris's Avatar
    Ha, a polynuc-you obviously don't have natural bees. I got my first swarm on Sunday-set up my Warré in the *special* place. They "sniffed" it out and just when I thought the swarm was arriving, they chose a lopsided nuc full of rubbish frames that I'd thrown on a heap for dumping.About 3 yards away. As Gavin said, bees can be so stupid. Not to mention beekeepers that insist with certain ideas.Like Warrés.
    Great to see the swarms arriving Jon.
  5. Jon's Avatar
    Great to see the swarms arriving Jon.
    It is great as it means the bees have recovered after a hard winter. I wasn't expecting many swarms this year as colony build up has been slow for most people.

    I had two empty wooden hives beside the poly box but it was that poly box they picked out.
    they were piling in with pollen when I looked first thing this morning.
    I am guessing from the size it is likely a prime swarm so the queen could have a frame laid up already.
  6. Jon's Avatar
    I have a lot of scouts around the bait boxes again this evening.
    Might be another swarm on the way.
  7. Jon's Avatar
    Sure enough, another one at 2.00 today.