WM75Guy
Elite Member
Do you use a bee vac to get them?
Beekeeping
- Thread starter LittleBittyBigJohn
- Start date
CloverKnollFarms
Elite Member
7 hours later...
This was not a swarm... It was a full colony that had absconded. It was INSANE. BUCKETS of bees.
Never saw the queen. But we vacuumed her into a box and her children started locating on the box. Hallelujah
This was not a swarm... It was a full colony that had absconded. It was INSANE. BUCKETS of bees.
Never saw the queen. But we vacuumed her into a box and her children started locating on the box. Hallelujah
CloverKnollFarms
Elite Member
Yup. I built a bee vac a few years ago. We vacuumed all of these bees until we knew we had the queen. Once she is secure, I let the rest follow her into the box. It was one colony, in two completely separate cavities. One cavity was 6' deep so we had to use a pretty long hose. I hate that we always secure the queen after about 6 hours of work
. Time for a shower and to take the wife into town for a beer. She worked for it today! Hot, humid, nasty day.
CloverKnollFarms
Elite Member
These bees moved into a neighbors home.
Well, we thought it was a swarm... Pretty certain it was not. I've had full colonies extracted that were smaller. It was a massive number of bees. Likely a colony that absconded.
Oddly, they occupied two separate cavities in the same house. One cavity with no queen, one with a queen, 10' apart. Odd.
So we weren't sure it was one colony, because, why?? So wee segregated th bees in separate boxes. The first box didn't have a queen, as no bees would locate on the vents.
The second box did have a queen, as after 40 minutes of vacuuming, the bees located on the box.
Now, to be sure they were from the same colony, I took a handful of bees from the first box and placed them in the grass in front of the second box... And they located on that box too... They wanted to join the queen. So, we combined the two groups and opened the entrances to let the rest join.
It's a helluva lot of bees.
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Pretty cool that your wife is into the bees as much as you are!!!!
CloverKnollFarms
Elite Member
She is a great helper, and in these situations, it is nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of. No two scenarios are the same, so you are never really "prepared".
I often pay little attention to my bee vac, and this cutout has me wanting to design something different. It works fine, but it could be better and more user friendly for cutouts 8' up in a soffit and 6' back in a cavity.
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Looks like bees are a big fan of baseball
www.breitbart.com
AZ Beekeper Handles Bee Swarm at Diamondbacks Game, Throws Pitch
A beekeeper in Arizona saved the day on Tuesday night when a bee swarm developing behind the netting on home plate delayed the game.
www.breitbart.com
CloverKnollFarms
Elite Member
Today is a cloudy, drizzly day... Perfect day after a cutout. The bees will be stuck in that box another day due to weather, and more readily accept it as home. It has a mix of new frames with foundation, and fully drawn frames, so the queen can start laying.
We are about to hit a good black locust flow here, and clover is just starting to blossom... Great time to get them settled in a proper home, not someone else's home.
We are about to hit a good black locust flow here, and clover is just starting to blossom... Great time to get them settled in a proper home, not someone else's home.
CloverKnollFarms
Elite Member
Moved the colony of bees to a new place to re-orient.
We vacuumed 3/4 of the bees out of the house 2 days ago. The other 1/4 would not move to the box with the queen. Probably because we had this little piece of comb still in there with eggs in it.
So we moved the comb, vacuumed the remaining bees, and moved them a few miles away to get settled in their new home. Mind you, this pile of bees, half a 5 gallon bucket, is 1/3 of what was already in the hive box. This was not a swarm, but a full colony that must have absconded.
We vacuumed 3/4 of the bees out of the house 2 days ago. The other 1/4 would not move to the box with the queen. Probably because we had this little piece of comb still in there with eggs in it.
So we moved the comb, vacuumed the remaining bees, and moved them a few miles away to get settled in their new home. Mind you, this pile of bees, half a 5 gallon bucket, is 1/3 of what was already in the hive box. This was not a swarm, but a full colony that must have absconded.