Attracting a swarm

[pargyle]

Uh huh and how does one achieve that? (propolis painting that is)

PH

That's easy .. I paint the inside of all my new boxes with my propolis varnish.

Put your propolis/hive.frame scrapings into a jar, fill it with methylated spiirits, give it a good shake and shake it daily for about a week. The propolis dissolves in the meths. Strain off the solids and brush it on. The meths is just a carrier and it evaporates almost instantly leaving behind a layer of propolis and this lovely bee smell. I usually put 2 or 3 coats on and leave the box for a couple of days before putting bees in it. Saves the bees the effort of doing it ..

 

[Erichalfbee]

Exactly what I do after a great tip from Philip

 

[bingevader]

Just because it is the beginners section ...the petrol is not there to set fire to the hive.

You just seal the box up and pour half a pint of petrol in. The fumes kill the bees in a few minutes. You have to discard the frames - they can be burnt but not until the petrol has evaporated.

The brood box can be aired and then thoroughly washed out.

Beginners please note .. Pouring a cupful of petrol into a hive and setting it alight won't only kill the bees it has the potential to kill you, or at very least cause some very serious burns.

Personally, I would consider killing bees with petrol as the ultimate last resort - unless they were infected with AFB and then it would be under the supervision of a Bee Inspector who knew what he was doing.

Please accept my sincere apology for my total ignorance of methods for destroying bees!

The reply remains the same though:

If as a beginner, you are considering destroying your bees by any method, please contact your local association, or someone who knows what they are doing and give them away!

 

[Beersmith]

In the beginners section, and a question posed by someone yet to undergo basic training concerned about getting his first bees.

Does this set a new record for the longest, completely fascinating, but almost entirely off topic thread ever?

 

[Erichalfbee]

No

 

[Millet]

Please accept my sincere apology for my total ignorance of methods for destroying bees!

The reply remains the same though:

If as a beginner, you are considering destroying your bees by any method, please contact your local association, or someone who knows what they are doing and give them away!

Don't apologize to nuggets ..at the end of the day if you need to use petrol you are rubbish with bees and should not be keeping them..i started out with mental bees and on my first day buying a Nuc i got zapped in my ear hole /back and legs..it never fazed me and i just cracked on..i have had the odd silly hive since and been hammered on inspection...petrol was never deployed..
When i say a silly hive i mean very defensive mixed with aggression..crown board removed and the bees spew out in your face..which continue to follow you for around 15mins at 100yards away..the horses in a neighboring field get stung and the dog 40yards away..my lady friend has to regularly run into the cottage after getting stung...AND not once was petrol ever a option..i put my head down and got on with it till i eventually rooted out the problem mental genes for a more calmer strain..
NEVER EVER USE PETROL..
Steve.

 

[Millet]

In the beginners section, and a question posed by someone yet to undergo basic training concerned about getting his first bees.

Does this set a new record for the longest, completely fascinating, but almost entirely off topic thread ever?

Drink more Beer Mr Smith..it will all unfold in the end..

 

[Hombre]

Harking back to the beginning of the thread, before we really got to evil bees,
"if we have any issues with main hive. I will be talking to the other beekeeper."
It is often cited that a frame of eggs from another hive - thinking bee buddy - is a good idea and it is.
Consider however that the favour that you might think is part of the comraderie of beekeeping is probably valued at £20 or more and the loss from the donor hive can also set back it's evolution towards being a honey producing colony.
This notional cost is loosely based on the fact that a package of bees will cost around £125 or so. So think hard before asking someone to disadvantage themselves to help you out. It could well be the difference between a decent honey crop for them or not.

 

[MerryBee]

A bit of an exaggeration to suggest that taking out a single frame of eggs is the difference between a honey crop and no crop, if I understand you correctly. Although you are right that it does have a monetary value on it if you were so inclined.

A good queen can lay up a frame of eggs in a couple of days, so the donor hive will quickly recover

 

[Erichalfbee]

A good queen can lay up a frame of eggs in a couple of days, so the donor hive will quickly recover

Indeed she can and remember you don’t even need a whole frame. A piece cut out with a biscuit cutter out of donor and recipient frame is often enough.
Now a frame of emerging brood is a different thing b

 

[gp125john]

Going back a bit...

Catching swarms can be a good way to get bees provided you have done your homework and are careful when inspecting and know what to look for in terms of potential problems.

All my bees are from swarms and most are lovely (most of the time although I don't think any colony is friendly and obliging every day of the year) and only one is a bit tetchy.

People always seem very disparaging about swarms but is a good way to learn and the bees seem to have been strong and resilient in my experience so far.

I caught two swarms just by putting a 6 frame 14x12 nuc box on the shed roof with a piece of old brood comb in and a few drops of lemongrass oil around the entrance.

When they move in, I leave them alone for a day or two and then remove any wild comb and put in 5 frames with foundation. They usually only do much with the old brood comb to start with.

I feed them some syrup after a few days and keep that up until all the foundation is drawn.

I then leave them to build up for a few weeks and then take them to an outapiary, where they can be hived.

Some of the problems with agression are caused by all these imported queens hybridising in F2. By using local bees and breeding our own from best stocks (and requeening nasty colonies from our own stocks) surely we can maintain good bees.

Notwithstanding this, bees need some level of agression to defend the hives from wasps etc, there is nothing worse than seeing a colony that allows them to walk in

 

[Millet]

From post one to now do we think the replies where of any help to the original post .

 

[Erichalfbee]

From post one to now do we think the replies where of any help to the original post .

A Curate’s egg

 

[Beersmith]

From post one to now do we think the replies where of any help to the original post .

Do you doubt it?

For a beginner, yet to obtain any bees and yet to undergo basic training, surely knowing how to destroy a vicious colony with petrol, the legal risks involved if an aggressive colony causes the death of someone vandalising a hive and how to make propolis varnish are the highest priorities.

/sarc

 

[pargyle]

From post one to now do we think the replies where of any help to the original post .

Yes .... lots of help and also good information from lots of people that will be appreciated by quite a number of others as well ...

Unless you already know everything there is to know...

 

[Millet]

A Curate’s egg

True i suppose..

 

[Poly Hive]

What I know is this.

Swarms are happy to go to a five frame nuc with foundation. Said nuc sitting on the ground. Which rather blows away the forty litres at twenty feet.

Swarms will debate the final site over quite a time, I have observed that for over two hours before the decision was made. Then a quick flurry of activity and then they were in and settled. Then some will swoop in and settle immediately.

Lemongrass oil seems to help but as I also usually have a drawn frame in the hive is it the one or the other or the combination? No idea and not worried.

Do I feed swarms? No, not unless I am sure they are likely to be low on stores, as in wet swarm which obviously has been hung up for a few days, witness some comb being drawn on site.

Are they safe? Probably but should be isolated just in case.

Are free bees fun, yes until you realise you are short of supers and that last excluder is damaged and then they ain't so free.....

PH

 

[For want of a better word]

A Curate’s egg

Time to get out the dousing rods and find the leyline intersections where the bees always swarm too ?

 

[Beefriendly]

Good to see you back David...even if under yet another identity. You sure wracked up some posts in the few months you have been FWOABW

 

[Beefriendly]

What I know is this.

Swarms are happy to go to a five frame nuc with foundation. Said nuc sitting on the ground. Which rather blows away the forty litres at twenty feet.

Doesn't blow it away in the slightest. That is their preferred nesting site. But they will take anything they find that is suitable (or even unsuitable) if the ideal nesting site is not around when they are looking. Even a nuc on the ground if nothing better available.