I mostly hive swarms directly into a full size hive but, I've heard of others that stick them in a neuc.What's the concensus ?.
I mostly hive swarms directly into a full size hive but, I've heard of others that stick them in a neuc.What's the concensus ?.
Depends on the size of the swarm and what I've got to hand. I find a Nuc quite handy to collect them in but a decent sized swarm goes straight into a beehive.
For me, it depends on the size of the swarm, and whether there's a flow on.I don't like to feed them unless really necessary, so I give them space to fill, but not enough to "discourage" them. I prefer to use a full hive with a partition board and give them extra frames as needed. This year I used a chimney
I used an Apidea day before yesterday, the swarm I was told about, a woman concerned in they were in her garden turn out to be a tiny tiny cast, they moved in nicely left them till night and got the lot.
I was talking to bee farmer John Mellis yesterday .He recons that swarming is as bad this year as last year.He's heard of someone who recons about 80 % of his colonies had swarmed.John recons it might be that the weather last year caused a lot of poorly mated queens resulting in a lot of superceedure occuring.The weather this year could lead to the same poor mating.
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