After collecting Olea's afterswarm the other day, some bees were still in a small cluster; this always happens. This cluster was the size of a cantaloupe. I was going to let them return to the parent hive, make their way to the nuc or just die. Early yesterday morning, Maidi suggested that I shake them into a box and take them to the nuc- an excellent idea. I immediately did so. I put the box beneath the nuc. But you can take a bee to a nuc but you can't make it go in. They just stayed in the box all day, all night and today.
Since it was several hundred bees (maybe a thousand) I decided to help them into the nuc. At first I wanted to make a ramp using the flap of the box, but could not arrange things for that. So, I poured the bees onto the top of the nuc, expecting them to crawl down the face into the door; but, no. After sometime, I lifted the lid about 1/2 inch and waited. In short time, two bees crawled into the hive. So I propped the lid up, went inside and set the timer for 30 minutes. I took a look, and almost all of them were inside. I gave them another 20 minutes, et voila!- they were all inside. I closed the lid and went in for dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment