Monday, June 3, 2019

A swarm in June...






A swarm in May... but this is June and one can not always get what one wants
Over the past couple of days I have noticed increasing interest in the pulp pot swarm trap.  This afternoon while I was changing out of my pickleball clothes, I heard a loud buzzing coming from the front.  I ran out in my stocking feet and saw what I expected- a swarm moving into the trap.
The first part of the video shows the cloud of bees, then a close-up of the entrance.  The next two segments show the bees forming a beard on the trap as they land and start moving inside.  The whole process took 10-15 minutes.  Some still photos of the process
The swarm approaches the trap

They begin to land and enter the trap

Traffic jam.  The bees are landing faster than they can go inside

Just about all the bees have landed
As I waited for them to all get inside, I went out back to prepare their new home.  I collected a screen bottom, one deep box with 10 frames, some with comb, a Vivaldi board and a telescoping lid.
Then, I made my big mistake.
I had been wanting to place ant moats under all the hive stands, and I thought it would be easier to place them now before adding another hive.  What I misjudged was just how heavy #1 was.
The whole thing was a bit tilted after I was able to lift the stand and place the moats under three of the legs.  The last leg was in the front below the hive.  As I tried to lift it, the inevitable happened-
the stand and entire hive fell over backwards!
I quick like a bunny ran to the shed, donned my bee suit, tried fruitlessly to get the smoker going, and ran back to the apiary.  There I righted the stand, easily placing the moats under the legs.  I re-assembled the hive from the bottom up.  Inspected the ground to see if the queen was there (I did not see her) and then went back to the intended job.
I placed the new hive in #2 position and removed all but the two outermost frames and put grass across the entrance.  I then went to the front, plugged the entrance to the swarm trap, unhooked it and carried it into the back.  I decided to keep the bee suit on since I did not know how mad the bees from #1 would be after their big disturbance.
Proud papa
After placing the trap in the deep box, I unscrewed the two halves.  There were still a lot of bees in the bottom half, so after removing the slum gum and piece of comb, I dumped them into the hive.  I then dumped in all the majority of the swarm that had gathered in the top half.  I then filled the moats with mineral oil and, voila!  three hives in the apiary. 

In a few days when all the stragglers from the swarm are gone, I will re-hang the swarm trap.

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