Swarm Traps

After last Winter's surprisingly high losses my bee stocks are a bit low and demand seems to be pushing up the cost of new colonies. Normally I'd be looking at splitting existing colonies to make new ones but at present colonies aren't strong enough for that to be an option so I've decided to make some swarm traps to hopefully catch myself some passing swarms. Through a chance meeting I happen to know where there's  a chap who keeps bees and very unwisely does no swarm control at all so assuming he got some bees through the winter there's a likelihood of swarms from there at some point.

A swarm trap isn't really what it sounds like. It's not so much a trap as a rather nice house with the door left open. It's left out in the hope a passing swarm will spot it and move in. They can be as simple as a bucket or a cardboard container stuck up a tree, an unoccupied hive stuck on a shed roof, a purpose built wooden box and I've just seen a new one that looks like an empty kick bag too. I decided to build a couple of wooden boxes myself to place in trees.

I started roughing out some designs and measurements and designs. They're not the most complex things to build. You just need a box with a hole in it that you can open to remove the bees from. I decided to make mine to hold a few frames which should make bees easier to remove rather than having to deal with wild comb, it also means I can store frames in themm when they're not in use. Depending what you read bees will be seeking a 20-70 litre cavity. Some people use 5 frame National Nucs with success but that's probably on the small side. After some drawing and capacity calculations I decided to save a little time and money by making mine out of cut down brood boxes.

A couple of spare Brood Boxes about to be repurposed

First thing to do was use the trusty table saw to cut the boxes to size. To save time I used two of the existing corner joints already on each box. I cut two sides so that the finished boxes would be 30cm wide. Actually I cut one wrongly so had to do an extra cut and reattach a piece of wood to get one side the right length. Oops. The sides that would become the box fronts I removed some of the screws from the joints and cut them flush to the inside edge. The finger joints that got cut off I just glued them back in place. As swarm boxed they're not going to be weight bearing.

Precision wood butchery

I wanted to be able to put deep frames in and originally planned to use the existing rebate in the box sides to support them, however I decided the boxes would be stronger with an eke at the top to hold them together and increase the space inside for the bees.

Taking shape. The shape is an oblong.

A 1/2"  thick floor was screwed and glued underneath each cut down box and I made a little eke with rebates for the frames. The ekes were attached with nails in guide holes and more wood glue. They were then left for the glue to cure overnight.

Hook for hanging

The plan is to hang the traps from trees so borrowing an idea I saw on YouTube I added a vertical piece of wood with a large hole drilled near the top. My plan is to knock a big nail into a tree and use the hole in the plank as a hook. The vertical piece is going to be stuck between the box and a tree so I used tanalised wood to protect it from damp. It's on the outside of the box so the bees probably won't be making much contact with it. I gave the side that'll be against the box a coat of Shed & Fence paint before attaching it with more screws and glue - don't want the boxes dropping off afterall.

Usually bee hives are fee standing and the roof is able to sit on top, with sides reaching down around the box below, however as these are going to be hung in trees I couldn't do that. I opted to use a hinged roof attaching the hinge to the vertical support. The roof is just cut from some thick plywood.

Toby the Cat handling Quality Control
-yes, he's pretty clueless

I attached a batton to each of the short sides so I had some way to carry the boxes. I do the same thing with brood boxes. The whole lot got an uneven coat of  badly mixed bklack and brown Shed & Fence paint then I cut entrances with a wide drill bit. I actually drilled straight through a screw making one of the entrances which ended the working life of the drill bit which was a bit unfortunate but did give a natural non uniform looking hole.

One door opens..

Once occupied I'll need to move these boxes to get the bees into a hive so the entrances needed some sort of closing mechanism. I opted for a simple rotating door. As a hinge I took a regular wood screw and filed down part of the thread near the top. This went through a hole in the door with a washer between the rotating door and the screw top.

Entrance, Door and Doorstop.

I also added a door stop to reduce the chance of accidentally knocking the door open whilst moving the traps with bees in them. To keep the lids closed I attached a couple of brass plated hooks attached to screw eyes and drilled holes in the battens for the hooks to go into which will secure the roof closed.

Bitumen Paint and closures

I'd already given the roofs a lick of Shed & Fence paint where they don't make contact with the bees but decided to finish the roofs with some flash tape so I could form some sort of drip edge to guide rain away from the boxes. It's a lot more expensive than roof felt but easier to apply and more robust.The tape comes with some water based bitumen paint to prime the surface before applying the tape. I painted both roofs black and went inside to do something more interesting than watch paint dry. A few hours later I went outside and found it'd rained so reapplied the bitumen.

Pretty sure this will be the weakest point.

I think the hinge is the area most likely to suffer rain damage so I painted over the moving part and the side on the roof I also painted with bitumen then flash taped over. The vertical part is going into treated wood so should be okay but when I take them down at the end of the season I might give them a squirt of polyurethane varnish or something for extra protection. I applied the flash tape so it always overlapped and made drip edges by simply folding the tape back onto itself and then back to the underside of the roof. The roofs are larger than the boxes themselves with an obverhang on three sides.

Labelled so mice and birds don't mistake them for birdboxes

A few seconds scrawling on the front with a huge sharpie had the boxes labelled, just in case anyone gets curious and finds them occupied before I do. Each box holds 7 Deep Commercial Frames with a little more space at the bottom than a regular broodbox on a hive floor due to the eke on top. I think they've got a capacity of about 25 litres each. Believe it or not when looking for a new home scout bees measure the capacity of the cavities they find.

I loaded each box with a couple of old frames of dark comb, bees seem to like moldy old comb. Strange. I also gave each a couple of frames of undrawn fresh comb to give any swarms moving in something to do and filled the rest with empty frames. I also added some swarm bait and a little slumgum.

Big nail, that'll do it.

The swarm traps completed the next thing was to put them up trees. I found a couple trees in the area I was thinking of and put a nail in each high enough to keep the boxes just above head height. One tree I was able to climb a few feet, the other I just had to reach up and try not to hammer my thumb. As the holes in the traps wooden supports were fairly large it was easy enough to get them on the nails without being able to see what I was doing.

Once hanging from the nails the traps needed securing so they didn't rock or get blown off. One I stabilised by wrapping with a bungee chord, the other wasn't level so I wedged a piece of wood behind it and wrapped a ratchet strap around the whole thing to hold it still.

Half a brood box stuck up a tree.
Bees won't find that suspicious at all.

I've not tried this approach before and my placement of the traps is based more on them being out of the way of people and for myself to be able to remove them easily rather than the best position to attract bees but I'm going to see how it goes. I've also filled an empty hive with frames and a swarm lure at the apiary too so now I'll just cross my fingers and wait.

The second trap, also up a tree.

Swarm Collecting

This year I've had surprisingly few calls about swarms. None in fact. However in early July an ex posted on Facebook about a swarm in a tree at her parents' so I offered to pick it up. I get free bees, they get no bees, the bees get homed, everyone wins :) I rolled up in the early evening walked to the door knocked and was told I'd just walked straight past the swarm. I looked round and there they were. In a low tree at about shoulder height in a very round cluster - the kind of thing you'd expect to see in a text book.

Well bee-haved, ready to be-hived.
Beekeeping is 90% punnery.

They were on a single small branch so I thought it's be easiest if I just cut the branch then deposit it complete with the bees in the 5 frame Nuc I'd brought with me. Simple plan. It actually turned out to be a flawed plan. Taking a firm hold of the branch on one side of the swarm I cut the branch on the other side of the swarm as planned. Instead of carefully carrying the cluster to the Nuc and dropping them in I watched the cut branch in my hand bent double dropping half the bees on the floor below. Excellent stuff. I'd gone from having the swarm in a tight easy to move cluster to a couple of thousand bees in a pile on the ground, a thousand or so on a floppy twig and a few hundred on the wing looking to form a new cluster in the tree.

I assumed the bees on the twig were probably the oiriginal centre of the cluster which should include the Queen so I deposited these in the 5 frame Nuc I'd brought along with a frame at either side. I then used another frame of drawn comb to remove the bees from the ground and shake them into the box. They're attracted to the comb so when I held it to the bees on the ground they climbed onto it for me to move them to the Nuc. When I'd got the majority off the ground I turned my attention to the fliers who kept returning to the tree. Giving it a shake here and there to dislodge the landed bees and a few puffs of smoke to mask any pheromone they eventually gave up on it in favour of the workers Nosanoving at the Nuc entrance. I left the Nuc on the ground and returned a few hours later.

Almost there

When I got back the bees had gone to the Nuc as hoped. There were a lot hanging about outside the entrance though -unsurprising as it was a particularly warm July evening. I used some gaff tape to secure the crown board and used some more tape and a cardboard box to make a cover for the front which would leave room for the bees outside the entrance, after all I didn't want them flying about in the car with me.

Most of this happened in transit.

It was a slow drive to the out apiary but I got there with relatively few bees getting loose in the car. I carried the Nuc complete with gaff tape and cardboard to the hive stands and  removed the packaging. During the drive bees had been coming out of the entrance filling the gap between the Nuc and the cardboard, luckily the gaff tape held for the journey.

Home sweet home

I put the Nuc roof in place and left the bees to it. When I did my next inspection I was relieved to find the bees had chosen to remain in the Nuc. I'd used a small National Travel Nuc I had sat in the shed for this lot. It took me a while to locate the Queen. I'm pretty sure she was still a virgin when I caught the swarm as it took me so long to find her and it was a long time before eggs started appearing too. When I did find her I noticed she had a very yellow abdomen compared to most of my other Queens. I considered raising the swarm as a new colony but later decided to use her to replace a swarmy queen in an existing full size colony and united the workers to an existing hive that needed a boost.

On The Waterfront

I got a phone call on Tuesday about a swarm of bees that had arrived in the grounds of a Ship Repair and Dry Dock company. I said I'd be happy to go collect them and after work went to my apiary and grabbed a nuc. In it was 4 frames of new foundation and one frame of old dark used comb. I also gave our Regional Bee Inspector a call as he's asked us to contact him if we get any calls about swarms within a kilometer of the Humber bank or local ports due to concerns about pests arriving in the area -specifically small hive beetle. It took a while to find the ship yard as the number of site entrances to the dock area confused my satnav but once there the security chap showed us their location. There's a lot of trees and greenery in the area but these bees had opted to cluster on the corner of a pallet of Marine Lubricant, on a metal grid, tucked just under some nettles near a load of paint.

Lots of nature around, but the bees chose this.

My usual method of swarm catching involves initially getting as many bees as possible into the box at once by shaking or brushing them in. There wasn't space to do that with these though. Luckily the RBI had a different approach. He held the frame of old comb to the swarm and the bees walked on to it. They love the smell of brood and other pheromones in there.

Coaxing the bees onto the comb

Once on the frame he shook it out into the Nuc then went back to the swarm with the old comb to get more bees and repeat. I'd wiped some swarm attractant into the Nuc -think that stuff's going to be a regular part of my kit after this year. The bees seemed to be staying in the Nuc once shaken in.

They seem to be staying

Sliding the frame under the pallet he used a stick to prise the bees off the wood to the comb below. When once most were in the Nuc I popped the crownboard on then used smoke and a little encouragement to move the remaining bees on the pallet and under the metal grid.

In you go ladies.

The Nuc was sat on top of 120 litres of Lubmarine (the marine lubricant used on over 7000 vessels!) and I'm not too sure what that contains so I was a bit careful with the smoker. Eventually with workers Nosanoving at the entrance we left the bees to finish getting themselves inside.

They're to the left

The RBI gave me a thing called a Better Beetle Blaster to put in the hive. It's a trap for Small Hive Beetle (SHB). SHB is an African beetle which so far has caused huge problems to beekeeping in the USA and parts of Australia. As far as we know Small Hive Beetle hasn't made it to the UK but it reached Italy in 2014. Controls put in place to have included destroying complete apiraies where the beetle has been found and treating the ground around them. The Italian's scorched earth policy is understandably upsetting a lot of beekeepers there but left unchecked the beetle may cause far more damage and their efforts seem to be stopping the beetle spreading.

Better Beetle Blaster

To use the Beetle Blaster you pour some vegetable oil filling the reservoir to about half way then sit the device between the topbars of two hive frames. The theory seems to be when you open the hive beetles sat on top of the frames will try to run into the dark and mistakenly run for the black top of the Beetle Blaster going through the holes which are too small for a bee and get caught in the oil.

Beetle Blaster with oil in place in the Nuc.

Back at the apiary I added some oil to the trap and popped it into the top of the Nuc then closed it up. Given the size of the colony and the calmness of the bees the RBI felt they had probably come from a nearby colony rather than a passing ship but given the impact Small Hive Beetle could have if it arrives it's best not to be complacent. He's told me to keep an eye on them for two brood cycles and I'll have a quick look in there next inspection.

The next day I got another call from Environmental Health reporting a second swarm in the same yard. Sometimes returning scouts can form a little cluster on the site a swarm was at if the person collecting it doesn't wait long enough for the scouts to rejoin the colony -ideally it's best to leave the box the swarm are going into till night time but that's not always doable. I was very sure I'd waited long enough though for the colony to get in so any stragglers wouldn't present a problem though. I grabbed another Nuc and went over. This time there was a smaller swarm very close to the previous days colony but in a slightly different place. Instead of being tucked under the pallet they were gathered on the corner of one the 20 litre lubmarine bottles. There were a couple of chaps curious as to how I was going to get the bees into my box (the Nuc) so I said I'd show them. Opening the box I placed it on top of the bottles with a view to using the old comb  to gather the bees up and drop them in, but that didn't happen.

As soon as I put the box down the bees started running into it. Some went into the entrance others went running up the side for the opening at the top. All I had to do was wait. Never had such an easy swarm collection before. Whilst the previous day's swarm had included a number of drones this one didn't. I spoke to the RBI as once again they were the dock area and he felt they were most likely  a cast swarm from the same colony that had produced the previous day's prime swarm. A cast swarm is a smaller secondary swarm sent out with a virgin Queen. I've taken them to my apiary and placed them next to the other swarm and on Monday the RBI will be dropping off another Beetle Blaster which I'll be adding some vegetable oil to and popping in the Nuc.

Talking to the guys at the ship repair place (impressive place with two dry docks BTW) swarms seem to arrive every year. One said swarms often come off the lumber ships going past to the unload at the docks which  sounds very feasible so whilst checking swarms in the port and river bank area is making more work for our Inspector I'm inclined to think it needs doing. With the arrival of bees on passing ships and what may be a local feral colony in the area he may look into setting a bait hive up in the area to both keep an eye open for SHB and reduce impact of swarms - after all two swarms in two days must be quite annoying especially if they're holding work up by sitting on equipment that's needed.

Swarm Lures and Awkward Bees

A couple of my colonies have been very swarmy of late. I suspect part of the problem is the swarms I caught last year are from stocks with a predisposition for swarming -in hindsight the fact they'ed swarmed for me to catch in the first place could've been a clue as to what to expect from them. The huge swarm I caught in July had been doing really well, raising a strong colony and filling Supers but a couple of weeks ago one morning the queen absconded taking a large contingent of workers with her leaving a supersedure cell and no swarm cells oddly enough. A couple of weeks ago a cast swarm went and sat in a neighbours fruit bush too and last weekend I collected a swarm from a fruit tree near my apiary. Not sure who's they were but the queen was marked blue so they've obviously slipped past someone's swarm control. As well as the usual weekly inspections and swarm control I decided to put out a bait hive and put swarm lure on a post so any swarms they managed to get by wouldn't go far. Looking on eBay for swarm lures I opted for the cheapest seller who's stock was in the UK and ordered 10 lures for £8.49 from someone uktrader2011. They seem to sell a lot of body piercing stuff as well as swarm lures and the text in the advert suggests the seller uses this stuff themselves and linked to a couple of videos of the seller showing the stuff in use. Good enough for me. Take my money!.

Swarm lures, store them carefully.

The lures came in little test tube things individually sealed in a plastic strip. I'm not sure what it's made of but it smells pleasant, whatever it is I think there's a little lemongrass oil in the mix. As well as the lure I decided to attach a box to a post to act as a bait hive too. I had a large polystyrene vegetable I'd found outside a supermarket knocking about in the shed and it was time I found a use for the thing. I cut a little hole in it then gave it a coat of water based masonry paint to protect it from sunlight and rain and strapped it to a post. I scribbled Swarm Trap on one side and marked the front with an arrow to the entrance for the benefit of anyone stumbling across it. Not sure if it'll work or not really as it might be a bit bright in there, usually a Bait Hive is an actual empty hive tucked out of the way somewhere or a big wooden box hung up a tree. I wiped some of the swarm attractant on a bit of wood, slung it in the box and wiped some more attractant on the post, the little test tube I also wired to the post. Whilst handling the lure I used disposeable nitrile gloves, you don't want to be walking about with swarm attractant on you.

Use the entrance. Can't you read?.

Two days later there was a large swarm on the post. The tube on it's bit of wire will have been in the centre of the cluster. The post was too firmly fixed to the gound for me to shake the bees off it but it looked simple enough to remove the box hold a Nuc underneath and brush them into it. Simple stuff. Unfortunately the bees had other ideas. I got about half of them into the box and the rest took flight. Popping the box on the ground for the fliers to join their sisters I started inspecting my hives. It would be very easy to see which colony had lost a swarm that size but my colonies were all intact. This swarm must've been drawn by the scent of the lure as they absconded from another apiary. I believe there's at least 6 other apiaries within a mile of this one so it's not too surprising although I'm wondering how strong this lure is and is every swarm in the city going to be heading to my post? Whatever the swarm lure's made from it certainly seems to work anyway. After ascertaining I wasn't missing any bees I found the actual swarm itself was now missing. Instead of the fliers and stragglers joining their sisters in the box those that were in had gone back the others and they'ed flown off. Not too far though. They were in a gooseberry bush. I gave them some time to form a cluster again then carefully made my way to them armed with my Nuc. Removing three of the five frames I held it under the cluster so close the cluster were half way into the box already then shook them into the box replaced the three frames and put the crownboard most of the way on leaving one end open a bit to help the stragglers get in. That should've been it really but instead they took flight again. This time moving into a very tangled collection of bushes.

Thirds resting place, wont be brushing or shaking anything out of there.

There was no way I could shake them out of that mass of twigs and plants. At this point I was thinking whoever had lost these bees was probably glad to see the back of them, and wondering if I really wanted such an awkward colony in my apiary at all. Still I had to get them in the box... Evidently they needed more incentive to stay in it so I swapped one of the new frames of foundation for a grotty looking frame of dark comb I'd earmarked for rendering and replacement. I also threw in the tube of swarm lure. Pushing the Nuc as far into the bush as I could without dislodging the bees I used some tin snips to cut away at the gantry of twigs, stalks, sticks and branches running through the cluster. As I went I removed the little offcuts one at a time placing them on the Nuc floor without dislodging their bee passengers. As the space in the Nuc slowly filled with twigs and leaves I noted bees weren't leaving it yet. Eventually I was able to bend the last couple  of branches into the Nuc and put the lid partway on leaving a space for the foliage and hopefully for bees to enter the box.

Doing as they're told at last.

It'd taken two hours to get to this point but eventually I was able to see workers Nosanoving to tell the other bees this was their home. Lifting one side of the crownbord I was able to pullout the twigs and so on and slip in the remaining frames without them traking flight again. I gave them another half hour to get in then took the box back to my apiary, sat it on top of another hive with the entrance pointing  the other way and soon saw bees Nosanoving at the entrance as flying bees went to join them. I'll leave them alone for a week or two before seeing how they're doing in there.

Stragglers going to join their sisters

Having checked the other hives I could see none are preparing to swarm at the moment, however with a period of  good weather predicted I'm expecting a few more passing swarms to be drawn to my baited post now. I dare say there may even be more from the colony today's awkward swarm had issued from too ..something to look forwards to there.

Third one in a row

I know this is getting a bit repetitive but.. I collected another swarm yesterday. That's three in a week, and they've all been large prime swarms. This was near the out apiary and based on the location I initially thought they were from one of my hives but after going through them and finding I wasn't missing any bees I figure they were probably attracted by the scent from the hives.

Yet another Prime Swarm

Unlike every other swarm collection I've done this one went pretty much by the book. I held an open nuc below the bees a sharp shake dropped most of them into the box then I added some frames and left them to get in by themselves.

In they go

I was a bit short on frames so although it's a five frame nuc I was only able to put four frames into it. I've put a follower board in the gap and I'll just have to hope the new frames and foundation I've got on order arrive fairly soon and I'll probably move these into a full size hive asap.

Later this evening after writing the first half of this entry I popped to the bee yard to install a vent in the shed (gets hot in there, don't want wax to melt) and noticed a cluster of bees on the front on the nuc. Sometimes bees will hang out of the front of the hive if it's a hot day but that wasn't what these were doing and it half nine at night they ought to have been inside. It looked to me like there was too many bees to fit in the hive.

Overflowing

Lifting up the hive roof I found the airspace was packed with bees. They needed moving into a bigger hive straight away. Last week I'd ordered some frames, foundation and roofs but they hadn't arrived. Going on the FedEx website and checking the tracing number I was surprised to see FedEx thought they'ed left me a delivery card 4 days ago, I'll have to pop to the depot tomorrow for them to sort it out.. I could certainly do without that but in the meantime I needed to move the bees this evening. I had a ten frame super with new frames and foundation and a shallow brood frame for drone culling and a few crownboards so I popped to grab a couple of solid floors, a queen excluder and some gaff tape went back to the bees. I moved all four frames and the follower board into the new brood box and added the shallow frame.

There's just too many of you

With all the frames, follower board and adhering bees removed there were still a lot of bees left in the nuc sides -and there were still bees in the roof and on the hive front too. The frames and follower board left the new brood box half empty so I shook out the remaining bees into the gap and put the queen excluder over the brood box and the ten frame super above that. I'm hoping they'll head up to the super rather than drawing wild comb in the void but if everything goes to plan I'll be filling that gap with new frames tomorrow anyway. Bees were nosanoving at the entrance as I put the crownboard on. Unfortunately I didn't have a spare hive roof yet (thanks FedEx..) so I had to improvise a little. I taped the crown board onto the super so water doesn't get in normally the roof sides would take care of that, then put another floor and crownboard on top of that. Gathering a few bricks to keep it in place I found a double glazed pane of textured I'd found on a building site near Aylesburry a while ago. I have a vague plan to use it for some sort of cold frame type thing eventually. I stuck that on top of the crownboard and floor then put some bricks on top to stop it blowing off. It should keep things a little drier till I can put a proper roof on tomorrow.

Looks daft.
Should be adequate for one night though.

Bees in the Trees

On Tuesday evening I got a call from the Beverley Beekeepers Swarm co-ordinator about a swarm of bees in The Quadrant, just off Cottingham Road. Not far from where I live. They were up a tree but within ladder reach. I rang ahead and asked if they had a ladder handy so I didn't need to lug mine over, they did, so I borrowed some undrawn frames from the brood box of an existing hive and armed with a six frame nuc went to meet the bees.

They were indeed up a tree just behind a family's garden. They were on a fairly thick branch I could just reach by hand. I initially thought I'd just cut off the branch carry it down to the nuc and shake the bees in but that would've meant removing about a third of the tree top which I didn't fancy doing to the tree and wasn't certain I'd be able to support it from it's lowest point one handed from if I did. Instead I cut away some smaller branches so I could get in towards the bees then ratchet strapped my nuc brood box to the floor and carried it up the ladder along with my bee brush. Pushing the brood box and nuc under the cluster I gave the branch a sharp shake dislodging bees into the box and onto myself and quickly gave the branch a sweep with the brush. Then I carried the box of now rather confused bees and added some frames. with a large proportion of the bees in the box I then had to mop up the smaller clusters of remaining bees. climbing back up the ladder I cut of the twigs being occupied by little clusters and shoo each on top f the frames. At one point I had to nip down the ladder and whip off my jacket as a worker bee had decided to join me in my veil. Not what you want at anytime really and certainly not what you need when you're up a ladder with not much but bees to hold onto.

Dizzying heights of beekeeping

Whilst I removed the bee from my veil a few of the remaining clusters grew as flying bees rejoined their sisters on the branch. I got most of those by knocking them into a plastic tub and then tipping that over the top bars in the nuc. I also gave the tree a thorough smoking to cover any pheromones still attracting bees to it.

The bits of tree I'd cut off I placed in the plastic tub and they'll be going in a composter later. I left the nuc with the crownboard partially on for flying bees to make their way in for a while, it was late evening when I'd arrived and was getting dark by the time I left. Two swarms in two days. Busy times.

Bees in the Bushes

On Monday afternoon I got a call from the Council's Pest Control people asking if I wanted to collect a swarm of honey bees. They're pretty good with bees and tend to pass on accessible colonies to local beekeepers. So far I've been out for a couple of swarms that turned out to be Tree Bumblebees and once for Red Mason Bees. Standard advice for Tree Bumblebees and Mason Bees? Leave them alone and they'll die off in Autumn. So it was a nice chaneg to get a call from the Council as you know they'll've correctly identified the bees. These bees were in a rose bush over in Bransholme, the other side of the city.

I popped to my out apiary and piced up a 5 frame nuc a-when you have bees in two places what you soon realise is that whatever you need is *always* at the other location, even if you have two of everything. It's a quirk of physics or something. So a quick trip to my out apiary to grab the five frame nuc and I was on my merry way when the phone rang again, it was the council again. I thought she was going to tell me the bees had flown away but instead it was another honey bee swarm. I couldn't collect them too though as having been increasing my colonies I'm running out of hive parts -had to order a load of frames and a couple of roofs today.

I got to the location had a look around and couldn't find any bees but after a little hanging about and a little input from a couple of people in the building that'd reported them I was led to a rosebush and there they were.

Admiring the rosebush

It looked like a prime swarm clustered helpfully on an easily accessible branch of the bush. I drove the car round and unloaded my stuff -the nuc, smoker, a saw, usual bee tools, safety stuff and a water spray.
Cutting away a large branch of the bush so I could manouvere the Nuc brood box under the bees I gave the branch a sharp shake and as expected, a load of bees fell into it. I Placed the box on the ground and added three frames of foundation. Turned out the bees helpfully clustered on the easily accessible branch wasn't the whole cluster. There were bees deep inside the bush so I then went about removing smaller twigs from inside the bush and shaking them into the box too. It took a while.I then put the nuc on top of a plastic storage box to move it nearer to where the flying bees were buzzing about and put a crownboard over the top leaving two seams open for bees to enter through as well as the nuc entrance. At this point bees in the box were nosanoving to guide the other bees in too.

Bees Nosanoving on top of the Nuc

I peeled off my Marigolds er beekeeper gloves I mean, removed my jacket and wellies and sat on the ground waiting for the flying bees to make their way into the box. Occasionally a small cluster would reform on the bush so I'd get up and gave it a shake and a smoke. Ideally I'd've left the nuc sat there and come back in the dark but it was too public so I loitered for a couple of hours, talked to a few people who'd seen the bees arrive, stroked a Terrier and caught up on my Facebook newsfeed. Eventually I closed the crown board, put the roof on and ratchet strapped it together leaving just the entrance open. After a couple of hours there was still a lot of bees in the air and I was starting to suspect there were some orientation flights going on. Using the water I'd brought I sprayed over the flying bees and the entrance trying to fool the bees into thinking it was raining. It took a half litre of water and half the bottle I'd brought to drink but seemed to make a difference. I then blocked up the hive entrance before putting it in the car and driving them to their new home.

Okay so it's probably a cartoon wasp I found on Google Image Search.
Works better than a Keep Your Distance sticker.

I would've like to have left the hive closed up for a few days but the only crownboard I'd had available didn't have a feeding hole in it so ventilation was limited and daytime temperatures are pretty high at the moment. Using some ply I'd liberated from a skip previously I quickly made a new crown board and using my hive tool a little creatively managed to cut a round hole in more or less the middle. I then swapped the solid crownboard for the new one and opened the Nuc entrance so the bees who flew up could get back in. I'd moved the colony a good 4 miles as the crow flies so the bees should reorient themselves the the new hive and not return to their original location.

New arrivals

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.