[oxnatbees] Re: Prime Swarm

From: Liz Greenhalgh <liz.greenhalgh@xxxxxxxxx>
To: oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2019 19:58:52 +0100

Thanks Brian,

Very interesting and useful.

Liz

On Sat, 27 Apr 2019 at 18:00, Brian Fiddian <brian.fiddian@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Here is a recent experience of moving a swarm into a hive. We learnt a lot
and hope it might be useful for your swarm when you get it.

*23rd April 2019*

In Bicester one of Karl’s hives produced a prime swarm which after
settling in a cherry tree was caught by him. We collected it just before
5pm. The car journey was about 20 minutes. Although Karl had taped up the
box securely we wrapped this in a sheet secured with a cable tie, just in
case. The chiller in the car was cranked up a notch and driver mode set to
cautious.

Back home and the box was placed in the garage to settle down. The sheet
was removed to reveal that one straggler bee had come too – she attached
herself to the grill on the box to chat to those inside.

*24th April 2019*

We turned the box over so the bees would not be on the flaps at the top of
the box. However some of the Duck tape must have loosened and a cluster of
25-30 bees were flying in and out of the garage. Karl advised hiving after
2 days but we thought it best not to wait as some were out of the box. We
erected a gazebo as rain was expected and set up to hive at five. We moved
the hive forward relative to its floor to create a bigger entrance at the
bottom of the box (Warre) and most of the bees were shaken out onto the
sheet. It took 3 or 4 firm shakes of the box. There were a lot of bees!

Straight away the nearest bees set off into the hive but after half an
hour a good many bees were up the front of the hive and the rate of entry
had slowed down. By sunset bees were still up the front of the hive and
clusters away from the hive were not going to move. All bees were firmly
clinging on to each other and the surface they were on. The temp was
expected to be around 9 oC overnight and the gazebo would keep most dry.
We put the box over the largest cluster on the sheet. We hoped they would
be alive in the morning. Inside the hive the bees had clustered inside the
entrance and had not gone up to the top.

*25th April 2019*

Bees had moved in and up very slightly the next morning but we were
concerned that there was no queen or the queen was in the wrong place. The
bees on the front had a bulge where we suspected the queen was.

We put some wedges of wood to lift the front of the hive away from its
floor to allow more space to enter and feathered the cluster off the front
of the hive onto the sheet (around 10:40 am). This did the trick and
accompanied by some drumming on the hive, using an empty 2 pint milk
carton, the bees entered the hive.

Temperature sensor data showed that at this point the top bar sensors rose
to early 30s  oC and that the bees had moved up to the top.

Throughout the day the isolated clusters revived by sunny intervals made
their way into the hive and the last cluster that had had a few wettings
from the run off from the gazebo were still alive and given a helping hand
from the feather and all were in by about 5 o’clock - 24 hours after
starting the process. Just before sunset we put the hive on the stand and
colony *Cherry* was established.

The learning things we got from this:

   - You can’t over prepare for a car journey with bees in the back
   - The gazebo saved lives; but do spend more than £15, ours was a right
   faff to set up between the hive and the apple tree
   - The prepared area of the hive entrance was extra-large but didn’t
   have enough height. So when the queen retinue came chasing up the ramp it
   must have gone over the workers in front and up the front of the hive. This
   resulted in deadlock. The thousands of bees inside stopped going up and the
   entrance was blocked so the queen couldn’t/wouldn’t go down and in. For a
   large swarm the entrance needs width and height.
   - The bees can survive a long hiving process, we kept them dry. There
   were only 10’s of casualties in the whole process.

The bees have been busy ever since, looks like they are going to stay.

Best wishes, Brian & Faith

Brian Fiddian

Brian.fiddian@xxxxxxxxx

07722 959882

01865 512614

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: *Karl Pattison* <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 7:40 PM
Subject: [oxnatbees] Prime Swarm
To: <oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

A lovely day for one of my hives to swarm, captured and boxed early
afternoon.
Telephoned people on the priorities list-those without bees but no one
answered.
Eventually working my way through the list I got an answer and this prime
swarm went to Brian & Faith in Summertown.
Bee close to your phones peoples as it’s swarm time!
I’ll hoping to have another swarm from the third buzzing hive soon !!

Karl (Bicester)

References:
- [oxnatbees] Prime Swarm
  - From: Brian Fiddian

[oxnatbees] Re: Prime Swarm

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