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difficult swarm collection
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Posted by hotzcatz Hamakua, Hawaii (My Page) on Tue, Oct 25, 05 at 14:40
| Aloha,
Yesterday a swarm moved into a banyon tree nearby. Instead of collecting and hanging on a branch, they are clustered in a fork of the tree. It has a tiny bit of shelter, but not nearly enough for a hive. I put a super nearby (two feet away) with a partly open cover as well as a cardboard box (eight inches away) to give them a choice of new homes, but they aren't interested in either one. I brushed a lot of the bees into each box, they all went back to the tree. I had looked and looked for the queen, but couldn't find her to specifically put her in the box.
The swarm is all settled in that one spot and doesn't want to move. There was some heavy rain and they are still there but where they have chosen isn't a good hive spot nor do they seem to want to move.
Anybody have any good ideas on how to collect this swarm?
A hui hou,
Cathy |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: difficult swarm collection
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Perhaps.....use a plastic garbage bag, not the best, but you can better dislodge the bees in the bag, then dump them into a super, but don't keep them longer then
a couple of minutes in the bag, [can suffocate]
Konrad |
RE: difficult swarm collection
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| I made a bee vac for this purpose. |
RE: difficult swarm collection
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| Aloha, Well, they were in the crevice for several weeks, but now they are all gone. Don't know where they went, but it wasn't into the nearby super. Maybe I'll be able to catch the next swarm. It is much easier when they all hang off a branch in a big ball. These guys had spread out onto a huge tree trunk in a big flat heap with no way to move them. Oh well, there will be others. Thanks for your suggestions even if the bees didn't co-operate! A hui hou,
Cathy |
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