Back to school, a second swarm.

Last Friday I got a call from the swarm coordinator at Beverley Beekeepers Association about a honeybee swarm on Ella Street, about a quarter mile from where I live, unfortunately I was working so missed it. Turned out they would've been a bit hard to reach being six metres up a tree anyway. Then on Saturday I got another call about another swarm, this time on Greenwood Avenue. But I was out at Yorkshire Sculpture Park looking at some pretty amazing woodwork by Ursula von Rydingsvard, so once again I was unable to go look. Then on Wednesday I got a call about another bee swarm at a local school which I was free to go collect. That's three calls about bee swarms in Hull over six days, the coordinator had also been dealing with swarms in other areas too.

Rydingsvard's handiwork at YSP

The swarm were on a tree at Winifred Holtby Academy, a modern school over on the east side of the city. It's a rather nice campus, attractive outside and in. I don't know why Hull doesn't make more of it but we have some really impressive modern architecture in the city -there's certainly more than The Deep over here. Anyway after a couple of phone calls I dug out a 6 frame nucleus I'd built last August (and forgot to blog about) along with two frames of drawn comb and four of foundation. I grabbed the usual tools, smoker, metal bucket, gloves, boots and smock and my trusty Teflon coated saw -it's a bit old but not too long in the tooth. Saw, tooth. See what I did there?

Following the instructions of my satnav I arrived at the school and spotted (well okay couldn't miss) an area of immaculate lawn with a number of saplings on it that'd been cordoned off with cones and red and tape. There was a dark mass near the top of the middlemost tree which I guessed had to be the bees. I wandered into the school spoke to a couple girls on reception, one asked what I was going to do with the bees. I told her I was going to pop them in a box, take them home and keep them in my garden, at first she thought I was joking. :)

I'd guess the tree was about 5 metres tall, possibly the tallest of the set but not by much. One of the caretakers helpfully lent me some steps which I put near the tree so I was able to reach the bottom of the cluster. It was actually a very big cluster I suspect if I'd brought a 5 frame nuc it would've been a tight fit and with the 6 frame nuc they'll be a little congested. When the swarm was flying it must've been quite a sight.

It's one big cluster..

I needed to cut the branch to remove the bees but didn't want to take off any unnecessary tree and even on the ladder I could just reach the bees. If I was to just cut the branch below them the cluster would fall onto me or to the ground and I'd have to wait for the cluster to reform -neither were winning scenarios, especially with a little audience.. But with a plan in mind cut through the wood I did. It was bit slow going as I didn't want to shake off too many bees whilst sawing. Some bees fell from the cluster and I was able to gather them onto a frame of empty comb and place them in the Nuc. I figured they'ed probably start nosanoving and attract any fliers.

I cut almost but not quite through the branch so it hung downwards from the uncut edge. Holding the bit with the bees on in one hand I used a sharp coping saw, also loaned by the caretaker, to cut through the rest and carried the branch and the bees down. At this point some bees took flight, regrouping on other branches, but the majority stayed in the together. The important bit was to not lose the queen who should be somewhere in the middle of the mass. Holding the bee covered branch above the nucleus I gave it a sharp jolt downwards causing the bees to fall to the Nuc floor, filling it a couple of inches deep. At this point they got pretty noisy but there wasn't any mass exodus from the open box. None of the videos I've seen of people catching swarms manage to do the noise justice, it's something you really need to experience first hand.

Circle

I picked up the rest of the frames and dropped them in place not pressing them down as they were sitting on a cushion of bees. It didn't take long for the bees to move between the frames or out of the entrance allowing them to be settled into position and the crownboard placed above. The crownboard had a round feeding hole in the middle and the  bees nosanoving on top of it with their heads to the hole formed a circular pattern around it.

Budge up!

At the front of the hive there was a large number of bees who I guess had come out of the entrance shortly after being shaken in as well as flying bees who'd landed there. There was plenty of nosanoving going on there too which was just as well because a cadre of bees had returned to form their own small cluster up in the tree. To move them out I used a combination of smoking, brushing and gave the tree top a few good shakes to dislodge them, repeating the process a few times as they returned in smaller numbers. I used the same process to get bees off the steps too and gave the tree top a thorough smoking to mask any pheromones left on the wood. If this had been in a garden I'd've headed off at this point and returned few hours later when the bees were all inside but being a school building with people coming and going for various sporting activities that wasn't really a good plan so I spent a couple of hours with a rather nice coffee talking to the also rather pleasant girls on the reception before finally blocking the entrance with some sponge, taping it secure and making the slow drive home.

Spot the new one...

There was no room on the hivestand for this colony so I knocked up a temporary stand using left over breeze blocks and placed the Nuc on that. Whilst I have the space for a few more colonies I don't think it's very practical to have more than three given my urban location so at some point I'll be uniting a few colonies to get myself back down to three.

Mystical Stone of Orientation

I gather swarmed bees should automatically reorient themselves with their new surroundings after being hived but didn't want to take any chances -and it's not like bees haven't been known to do the exact opposite to what's expected. So I placed a small stone outside the hive entrance, not blocking it but certainly noticeable to the bees as they came out. This is a trick I picked up from the forums and should make them take note of the location of their hive entrance and prevent them trying to return to their old site.

The next day there were noticeably more bees flying in the garden particularly near the 6 frame nuc. I guess the new bees were taking orientation flights. Being a swarm they're probably all mature bees anyway unlike a regular colony where only about ten percent of the bees are going to be flying, plus in an established colony the flying bees will be going away to forage and returning straight to the hive rather than milling about outside so you'd probably see fewer at any one time anyway.

This weekend I'll hopefully have a look in the hive, see if the Queen is marked or not. I've got no idea where they came from but going by the size of the swarm they must be from a pretty healthy colony. Going to have to make some decisions about which Queens to keep when I start uniting colonies very soon.