Framed

At the Beverley Beekeeper's Auction I picked up three unframed Queen Excluders -the wire grid that stops the Queen laying in the honey super. I decided to make wooden frames for them which should make them easier to take on and off the hive and give them some support -plus my motley collection of hive parts from various sources my supers didn't sit quite right on top of them without frames.

Unframed Queen Excluders

 I'd decided to increase my colonies this year so was going to need a few more of these -one per hive and a spare or two so I could swap out excluders covered in wax. Most of my excluders have a thin frame planed on one side so the Queen Excluder sits flat against the top of the frames. This leaves less space for bees to gum up with wax and propolis, however I've also found that my bees tend to glue these down very solidly which means I have to spend longer prying them up when I inspect the brood box. A couple of my used Queen Excluders have been constructed with the frame seated in a groove running down the centre of each side of the frame. This means the grid isn't in contact with the top bars which leaves small gap the bees could build burr comb but means they only glue the edges down making them easier to remove. I decided to go with this design myself.

Mao being unimpressed by the jury rigged tablesaw

After a quick trip to the Wood Shop I came home with three 2.1m lengths 2x2cm of PSE for almost a couple of quid a piece. I thought PSE  maybe meant Pine or Something Else but I googled it later and found it means Planed Square Wood, in case you wondered. Well I live and learn. I figure the width of the circular saw I've made into a table saw was probably about right for a slot the frame would fit in so lugging it outside and setting it up I popped on some ear defenders and cut a slot down the centre of each length.

The galley saw briefly proves useful again

After cutting all three I checked the fit. Perfect. That was a bit lucky. Lugging the table saw back inside I then hauled out the galley saw. This thing spends most of it's time just taking up room and I've thought about getting rid of it a few times but once every few years I find a use for it. I cut each frame side with a 45 degree angle keeping the slot on the shortest side.

Wire Queen Excluder and frame sides

After cutting 12 sides I pushed them around the frame, used some wood clamps and the workbench to hold them more or less together then went round the outside pre drilling countersunk screw holes. I put a japanned  wood screw in each corner to hold it together. Some wood glue would've been useful but I didn't have any handy.

One Framed Queen Excluder

I repeated the process for the other two excluders and finished before it got dark which is a bit of departure from my usual as I tend to finish up working via a shed light and my phone's torch depending on the state of the battery. I'm currently increasing my hives and with these three now finished I think I have one per hive and one spare.

Three Framed Queen Excluders ready for use

Swarm Time

So I woke up, as you do, went to make a latte, paused to admire the garden and noticed a lot of bees milling about in a different part of the garden to usual. Turned out they were swarming. There was a 3 foot tall cluster on the trunk of my recently pruned Pineapple Broom.

Accommodating bee swarm, clustered in an easy to reach location

To say these black bees are a bit prolific is an understatement. I've already made up one nuc that's now a complete colony and a second five frame nuc from them and they've still got two supers in place. It was very obliging of them to cluster in easy reach although I thought the Police helicopter choosing that morning to buzz about over my garden was a little untimely -however the bees didn't seem to care about it.

Textbook stuff

I placed a brood box with frames below the cluster, used a bit of smoke to move the top of cluster a little lower then knocked the bees into the box and put a crownboard over most of the top. Then it was just a case of waiting for the fliers to go join the rest. Simples.

Going in

Half an hour after starting I was inside drinking my frothy coffee and inflicting yet another video of bees doing bee things on my Facebook followers. After another half hour I wandered back outside to see everything looked quiet so it appeared my collection had gone to plan.

Looks good to go

I decided to put the swarm on top of it's original colony using a Snelgrove board so I could reunite them later.  I picked up the brood box complete with floor and took it to the hives. Lifted up the brood box and put it on top of the board. I had a quick look between the frames and was surprised to see a lask of bees. Where the hell were they? o.O

Didn't really take me long to find them. Instead of clustering inside the brood box with all its fresh foundation they'ed decided to cluster under the floor it was on. Not a huge problem. I removed a few frames from the brood box, held the floor over the gap and gave it a wallop watching as the bees dropped into the gap. Easy. However I then continued to watch as the bees promptly climbed back out of the box and took to the air. They weren't meant to do that. I'm pretty sure that in the books I've read they don't do that.

Time for Plan B. I have a little bottle of Lemongrass Essential Oil amongst my kit so I put a bit on the hive floor and on the back wall of the brood box. Bees seem attracted to it so I'd suggest not using it on yourself in the Summer.. I then put the brood box and floor back near where they'ed clustered and knocked a few bees off a log and into it. There were still quite a few flying but not really enough to account for the whole cluster. Eventually I spotted the rest. They'ed formed a new cluster. Not quite so easy to reach this time though. They'ed chosen a spot three metres up in some bamboo hanging over a pond. Excellent stuff.

High over a pond. Great.

I went back inside and got a step ladder, cardboard box and a big stick. Climbing the ladder and leaning over the little pond I held the box close to the cluster and knocked the bamboo with my stick. The bees fell into the box and I went back down my ladder. Unfrotunately as I climbed down most of the bees decided to leave the box. By the time I got it to the brood box there were only a few still in it I shook them out anyway. The few bees on the box were starting to nosanov so flying bees were heading for the box. I went back up the ladder and smoked as much of the bamboo as I could reach.

Let's try this again.

With the draw of the Lemongrass Oil and workers nosanoving (using pheromones to let other bees know where the colony is) the bees were definitely going into the box now. I'd left the top slightly open to let the bees in faster. I went inside to start writing this blog post leaving them to get themselves into the box in their own time. Then it started to rain. Heavily. Back outside I went.

Wet bees

The bees still on the outside of the box were waiting the rain out, and the rest had stopped nosanoving. Using a couple of plastic crates and a few lids I knocked up a quick shelter for them.

Improvising..

Cold bees don't do much and these wet ones were doing nothing. They'ed normally wait it out and resume activity when things warm up again. Unfortunately temperatures were set to drop so that wasn't going to happen any time soon. Going outside yet again I removed two frames from the middle of the box and used a couple of bits of cardboard to physically scoop up and drop in as many of the currently very docile bees as I could then replaced the frames. The ones left on the outside I gave a thorough smoking figuring the warm smoke should spur them into action as well as encouraging them the get inside. It seemed to work and soon there was only a few stragglers left on the outside.

Last few stragglers

I gave them an hour to sort themselves out then returned to find no more bees on the outside of the box. Carrying the whole thing over to the other hives I moved the brood box from it's temporary floor onto a  Snelgrove board on top the supers on Hive3 -the hive they'ed issued from. This time I could see the bees on the frames. I left one of the entrances slightly open so they could defend it easily.

The swarm are in the top.