Taro & Ti Bees » Swarms

Weak Swarm

MikeV — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:10:38 +0000

Swarm with half of the bees out foraging.

My first swarm of the year hasn’t done a whole lot just yet. But then, the nectar hasn’t really kicked in yet. My other hives are also pretty dry too – they’re certainly ready for the flowers to kick in. Currently we have bluebonnets in bloom and have had a few trees in bloom this season so far so the bees are not starving, but the main flow from the mesquite and wildflowers just hasn’t happened yet.

My first swarm this year looks a bit weak so I decided to cut out a comb from one of my top-bar hives to at least give them a place to begin laying and storing honey – a jump-start. This also gave me an opportunity to experiment with cutouts on frames rather than top-bars. Eventually I’m going to cut out both of my top-bar hives and transfer all the bees into the Langstroth equipment I have so this helped enormously. Unlike my wall cut-outs, a top-bar hive cutout will be largely anti-climatic – I’ll be cutting it one bar at a time so the entire hive won’t be opened up so there will be less bees flying around. Once I get the first comb of brood framed up and put in the Langstroth equipment, every frame of brood I pull from then on I will be able to just shake the nurse bees off into the new hive – they’ll quickly populate the combs that I’ve put in there.

In any case, I set to prepare the frames to receive cut out comb. While the common recommendation is to use large rubber-bands to hold the pieces of comb in place, I don’t have any. I do have an abundance of string tho. So I threaded a string thru the holes that the wire is threaded thru. I set up several frames in an empty hive because I saw a queen cell in my larger top-bar hive, so I had a few prepared frames handy. The queen cell was empty tho – from last year.

Tied up comb for swarm hive.

I searched thru the top-bars and settled on nice straight comb near the back. Less drama for the bees – only a few nurse bees on this comb. I sized it to the frame and found it was slightly taller. I cut it with a pair of scissors so it fits, leaving about one inch of comb for the bees to drawn down again. I lay the cut section on the wires and marked where each wire touched the comb. Then I flipped the comb over and used the bread-knife to cut a groove in the comb for the wire to rest in. I pulled the string out of the way and set the comb on the wires then pulled the string tight. I didn’t tie the string off tho – I just wrapped it around one of the ends of the top-bar. It was secure enough and by the time I pull that frame for inspection the bees will have attached the comb to the frame and wires securely.

It went very smoothly and as I envisioned. I pulled an empty frame out of the swarm box and moved the frames that the bees were on over. Then I put the new comb frame down where the bees had been clustered. The queen will migrate to the comb pretty rapidly, as well as the nurse bees – there are a few capped cells on this comb so there is good brood scent that the bees will find irresistable. There’s also room to put nectar now. I’ll do similar for my other swarm hive too. Eventually, every swarm I collect will get a frame of mostly empty comb to give them a head start. This will save them from having to make comb right away and let them get do the business of making more bees – which will make for a happy queen.

I’ll give them a week and cover their reaction to the comb here and how they’ve progressed.

Extended Swarm

MikeV — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:37:52 +0000

Five-Day Old Swarm

I have always pictured a swarm as a bunch of bees and the old queen leaving the old hive, hanging out on a tree and then deciding on a new home – in just a few hours, if that. I’ve never heard of a swarm that would hang out overnight. But today’s swarm changed all that.

Actually a few days ago I learned about what is called a “dry swarm” – one that was three days old or so that has used up the honey it took from the originating colony. That amazed me – I’d never heard of swarms hanging out for that long. But then, the swarms I do hear about are near residential property and they don’t have a chance to hang out for several days – the reason why I’d not given multi-day swarms much thought.

But today’s swarm educated me otherwise. The property was way out in the country – took me half an hour to get there. Some turkey hunters on that property notified the owners of the property Saturday that a tree on the property had a mass of bees on it and bees were flying everywhere. Luckily, they noticed the swarm while it was at it’s most visible – when a great number of bees were in the air. I’d have hated to hear about their experience if they went tearing thru the brush after the bees had calmed down. Anyway – that was on Saturday the Eleventh.

I learned of this yesterday, the Fourteenth. That evening the owner’s son confirmed to me that the mass of bees were still there. Four days in the elements! I am still in the progress of getting more equipment put together and last night I skipped painting my bottom-boards and finished wiring frames and hoped against hope that the bees would still be there tonight, the 15th. Since the trip was a bit longer, I taped a screen to the entrance so the bees wouldn’t suffocate. I left a little entrance for the bees to go into until I taped it to bring the hive home.

After work tonight I gathered up the swarm-hive and my protective gear and headed out. I was told recently that dry-swarms are prone to stinging when tampered with so I decided to suit up this time. Good advice and a very timely education. The drive there was long – but there’s nothing like a brisk drive thru the back-country. When I got there the owner wasn’t there yet so I hopped the fence and first inspected the source of the swarm – a bee tree that they also want de-bee’d. Looks like a good candidate for a trap-out, so I’ll be posting here about there here before long.

I found the swarm just hanging out, calm as can be. Five days out and no indication of going anywhere, even tho out there in the sticks there are all sorts of places for them to go. The tree they were on was quite overgrown with briars so this one wouldn’t be quite so simple as putting the box under them and shaking them in. At least they were low enough to reach.

I put on my gear, pulled the hive out of the back seat, made sure the duct-tape that held the bottom-board fast to the hive body was still intact – a critical detail that would make my drive home less risky, and got about figuring out how I was going to get the bees out. I decided that a bucket would be best – light enough to hold it up under the hive. I found a feed-bucket and borrowed that for the job. Then I positioned the hive as close to the swarm as possible and removed three frames to make a space to pour in the bees.

Since the bees were going to take an extra step to my hive, I decided to spray them well with tepid water. It was cool watching the swarm contract when the water touched them. Once they were good and soaked, I held the bucket under the bees and shook the branch hard. A lot of bees fell off – but since they weren’t heavy with honey, many still held on so I used my hand to scoop more bees off into the bucket until I got most of them. I took these bees and dumped them into the hive, shaking the bucket well. I put the frames carefully back in and put the lid on. Then I went back for more bees. I got smart and grabbed my bee-brush and strarted brushing bees I’d missed into the bucket and then it was back to the hive to dump them on top of the frames. These quickly went down into the hive, assuring me that the queen was in there. Eventually I was grabbing bees by hand, carrying palm-fulls of bees back to the hive. These I’d let off on the landing board and they’d promptly hop off my hands and crawl into the hive. The screen over part of the entrance confused some of them and I used the bee-brush to carefully herd them over to the actual entrance, where they promptly went in.

A few had to be left behind. The wife needed the car soon. But, I got most of them and at the time of the day when the foragers were coming back too so I’m happy. The stragglers will go back to the originating hive. Once the last handful of bees was herded into the hive I slapped tape on the remaining entrance and plopped the hive in the back-seat. I had only two lose bees in the car on the trip back – a very good capture indeed. I kept my suit on anyway – avoiding a deer could complicate the trip and I wanted to be ready to plop on the veil if the worst happened.

The bees are now home. I waited until it was dark before I removed the screen and tape. Unfortunately, I used my queen excluder on the last swarm so this one is at the mercy of her tastes. Hopefully she likes their new home and sticks around.

First Swarm of the Year

MikeV — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:38:27 +0000

Swarm on Crepe Myrtle

Saturday began like any other day – getting up and realizing that I’m running late. I rushed to my job to set up some equipment at a convention and while there conducting the work I was to do, I bumped into a fellow beekeeper. In these parts that’s a pretty good thing – there are precious few of us around here. It was really refreshing to actually sit down and talk bees to someone who was as interested in bees as myself. Talking bees to my wife elicits little more than a glazed over, blank stare. Little did I know, that meeting would be an odd coincidence, or a herald to yet another hive to enter my apiary.

Upon arriving home, I kicked back and figured I’d have a day to just do nothing. We all need those days once and a while. A day to regather our wits and purge our stresses by doing little more than lounging on the couch and taking in a few shows. It didn’t last long tho. A friend called me, telling me that his yard was full of bees and there was a mass of bees on one of his trees.

I was a bit unprepared for that. I had an empty hive out back and was planning on gluing comb-guides into the foundationless frames but hadn’t gotten around to it yet. It was supposed to be a cut-out hive that I was going to transfer one of my TBH’s into. I’d not opened my Top Bar hives yet this Spring, figuring I’d let them get up a head of steam first before disturbing them so I simply didn’t bother preparing any further yet. I figured I’d let them build up their numbers and do a split while I was in there later on this month. Next Spring I’ll make sure I have my empties and frames ready by February.

Not being one to pass up an opportunity, I rushed out and grabbed the empty hive and pulled the frames. Some wood-glue and fifteen minutes of fiddling and the comb-guides were installed. By the time I was ready to go the glue was hard enough to support the guides and I figure by the time the bees were in it the glue would be pretty much set. That was cutting it closer than I wanted, but it had to be done. I tend to frown on cross-combing and the guides help prevent that.

Anyway, my tools for this job was the hive, my veil, a camera and some duct tape. About as simple as one can get. It was a very nice day – t-shirt weather. The bees picked a convenient day to swarm. I’ve missed calls before because I was not available and that’s pretty frustrating. Not this time.

Close-up of Swarm

When I arrived, I didn’t see anything at first. I was expecting one of his fruit trees out front to have a ball of bees, but I didn’t see him or any bees on them. But, he poked his head from behind the house and hollered at me. I pulled around back and saw him pointing at a 4′ tall crepe myrtle. Hmmm, thoughts of having to cut off a branch entered my head. Not ideal, but better than nothing. I got out and there wasn’t hardly a bee flying – the mass was pretty much complete by now. A few would zoom off, then return. But it was pretty cool nonetheless. The swarm was about the size of a foot-ball – perhaps a little bigger – and hanging about midway up the little bush, right out in the open. We could wal up to it and kneel before it to examine it and not be bothered.

Tho I considered just snipping off the branch, I decided that there might be just enough room to squeeze my hive up underneath. I pulled the hive out from the car and duct-taped the bottom-board to the hive-body. Hive staples are normally used but I didn’t have any handy. I put a queen excluder between the bottom-board and the hive to ensure that the queen didn’t just up and fly off. With no brood to attract her, there was nothing keeping her there. Of course, chances are good she’d stay, but why risk it? I’ll remove the queen excluder as soon as I see some brood-comb.

We then removed a few landscaping bricks from around the bush so I had room to slide the hive in. And it did just fit under the swarm. Before pushing it in under the mass of bees, I removed three frames from the center so they’d have a place to drop.

Normally, swarms are extremely docile. However, flying bees are curious and seem to like my ears, so I tend to wear a veil even on good days. This was one of those good days. But that was all the protection I utilized. I prefer bare hands where possible anyway and if one is careful not to pinch a bee between arm and body or similar, stings are extremely rare. Swarms don’t have a hive to protect so their defensive nature is extremely muted. They’re also gorged with honey too so they’re clumsy fliers too. When bees swarm, they’ll store a lot of honey in their crops to be used to make new comb and keep the colony sustained until a new source of nectar and pollen is found. That makes it harder for them to sting or do much of anything.

Bees tucked into hive.

After pushing the hive-body up under the swarm, I had the owner and his son back off a bit. I wasn’t worried about angry bees, but was more mindful of an uninitiated person’s tendency to swat at anything that lands on them and once the swarm was shook off there’d be more than a few bees out flying around. I grabbed the branch firmly and after double-checking to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be, I yanked the branch downward hard. Virtually all the bees fell right off the branch and down into the hive. I yanked again to make sure the queen wasn’t still hanging onto the branch, and that was that.

There were hundreds of bees flying, but the greater mass of bees just fell right in. They were too close to each other to take flight and they were pretty full of honey, so they just dropped in with most landing on the queen excluder. I pulled the hive out from the bush a little so I could carefully put the frames back in. Even with bare hands, the bees were just not interested in me. A few landed on me then flew off. Once the frames were in, the bees that were climbing up climbed back down to get to the queen so it was easy to put the cover on without crushing bees.

Bees making themselves at home.

And that was it. 15 minutes of anticipation and a few seconds of excitement and I’m left wanting more. I’m sure more swarms will pop up here pretty soon. I left the hive there for the rest of the day to let the flying bees settle down and make that hive their home. That evening I returned and once the bees were all tucked in, I slapped a bit of duct-tape over the entrance, and taped down the cover and my friend and I lifted the hive up into the bed of his pickup. It was really light, of course – no comb full of brood and honey yet. I put some duct-tape on the cover and then put a large brick on that. The tape gave the brick traction so it didn’t slide off during the trip. We put a couple more pieces of duct-tape over that for good measure. Humanity would collapse without duct-tape, that I’m certain of.

The ride was only about ten minutes. That was about as long as I was willing to keep the tape on the entrance. Otherwise I’d have cut some screen and put that on instead. The bees were okay tho – there was enough air to keep them happy for a bit.

I had spent the afternoon putting down some bricks for their new home and leveling them to make sure the hive sat flat. Actually, I gave it a very, very slight forward tilt so that water would not enter the bottom-board and pool in the hive. I left enough room so I could work my Top Bar hives and get them transfered into new equipment.

Once we arrived with the hive, it was a trivial matter to put it down on their new bricks. I peeled off the duct-tape from the entrance and walked away. I didn’t see any bees coming out tho – usually at night they stay home and don’t fly. I checked it the next day and the bees were busy flying in and out of the entrance, happy as can be. In about a week or two I’ll examine the frames for brood and once I’m satisfied that the queen is laying good I’ll remove the queen excluder from the bottom. Now I’ve got to paint the rest of my hive bodies and glue up the rest of my frames for the next swarm…

Swarm!!!

MikeV — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:06:02 +0000

Cutout JHH-style Hive with swarm bearding on it.

There’s always an occasion where you take a hive and split it. You take half of the hive and put it in another box, and the one without the queen will make a new queen from the open-brood left over. This mimics the natural way of hive multiplication, that colonies do in nature – swarming. Well, one of my hives swarmed. I think it was today, tho it could have happened yesterday. It was fairly anticlimactic tho – as I had an empty cutout hive out there – a short version of my long-hive design.

I went out to repair some irrigation lines. That meant a trip past my hives to get to the affected hose. As usual, I peek at my hives on my way past, but this time, I saw something different on my cutout hive – a dark mass on the front.

A closer look revealed a mass of bees. Many bees. None were flying more than usual, and both of my hives still had normal activity. These bees were just kinda parked on the front of the hive, covering the entrance.

This cutout hive is the one from which ants had driven a previous tree-cutout. I didn’t remove the comb from the frames and just parked the hive somewhere out of the way. I’m migrating to Langstroth hives so I really wasn’t interested in spending a lot of time working with this box, cleaning it out and all that neatness.

Existing KTBH hives - guess which one is the source!

From the front of my other KTBH hives, it is readily apparent which one was the source hive. One had the normal activity, while the other was buzzing from within and had a slight bearding on the entrance – tho it too also had normal flying activity as foragers came and went.

I was going to split these hives in the Spring and then put the splits into Langs – do a cutout of sorts. But, it looks like one hive did that for me ahead of schedule. I’m glad I had another hive out there – that swarm is mine now and I didn’t even have to do anything. I love bees…