[oxnatbees] Re: Prime Swarm

From: Jane and Patrick Denby <janedenby@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2019 19:12:11 +0000

Thanks for this Brian and Faith. Hopefully we can add our story of bees at Dee
Cottage this Summer. The photos are great, so many bees and I am interested by
the drumming. I thought it was used to get bees out of a hive, but you used it
to get bees into a hive?
Cheers Jane and Patrick

On 27 Apr 2019, at 18:44, Gilliane Sills
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

Thanks for this Brian and Faith - it's very useful, and good to have the
photos.  And Magalie's and your experience with the way drumming can be used to
move the bees around (and thank you paticularly Gareth for that insight) is
very interesting.

You mention the importance of a large entrance when bees take themselves in to
the hive, and I've had the same experience of the entrance becoming blocked so
that a considerable number of bees end up on the face of the hive.  However,
with a horizontal top bar hive, there's no way of changing the size of the
entrance and I've been lucky that the queen did get inside even though not all
the bees did.  In my case, the bees eventually took themselves in.  Your tactic
of feathering the cluster off the face of the hive on to the sheet could also
be used with a horizontal top bar hive, so I'll remember that.

Best wishes

Gilliane

On 27/04/2019 17:59, Brian Fiddian 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!

[cid:part1.F1CAC192.DF84FAC5@btinternet.com]

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.

<image012.jpg>

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.

[cid:part3.BFD840E9.DBC400D7@btinternet.com]

<image014.jpg>

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.

[cid:part5.B84464CF.CCCB983A@btinternet.com]

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<mailto:Brian.fiddian@xxxxxxxxx>
07722 959882
01865 512614

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

--
The Map House
Vernon Avenue
Oxford
OX2 9AU

01865 721644

Follow-Ups:
- [oxnatbees] Re: Prime Swarm
  - From: Brian Fiddian

References:
- [oxnatbees] Prime Swarm
  - From: Brian Fiddian
- [oxnatbees] Re: Prime Swarm
  - From: Gilliane Sills

[oxnatbees] Re: Prime Swarm

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