Awkward Swarm Collection

[shudderdun]

Discovered this growing under one of my hives a couple of days ago but am only in a position to deal with it today, consequently it has grown ! It was originally under the hive shown in the background.

Never had to do this before, thought it through and this is my plan of action :-

Yesterday I moved this hive and stand to one side, put a new stand and floor in its place then transferred the hive over minus the original floor onto this.

I have a new floor and BB ready and have made up some frames minus foundation to strap the drawn cone to.

I am going to first of all place a sheet on the ground and position the new floor and BB on this, take hold of the stand/floor with the bees on and bang it on the ground above the BB, hopefully dropping the bees into the BB, then cut away and strap the what should be near empty cone to the frames and let the loose and flying bees enter the BB, closing any space down in the BB with dummy (block) frame.

Tomorrow I will transfer the bees to a six frames nuc and move it to my out apiary.


Hope this sounds about right, any other thoughts would be appreciated, thanks !

 

[Boston Bees]

Silly question, but is the colony in the box definitely queenright? Just asking as this can happen when a queen ends up under a mesh floor by mistake after a mating flight or similar.

 

[shudderdun]

Yes, checked, original Q is still in the original hive, not sure if there is a Q in the swarm yet, the "swarm" bees are not from the hive, they are a different colour.
Thanks for your interest.

 

[Boston Bees]

Yes, checked, original Q is still in the original hive, not sure if there is a Q in the swarm yet, the "swarm" bees are not from the hive, they are a different colour.
Thanks for your interest.

Good stuff.

I have never done what you are needing to do, so others can comment. Your plan sounds good to me. Obviously there is a problem in that you will lose all of your flying bees back to the original location and they may well go back under the new hive - if there is a mesh floor you could close this off to reduce the chance of them staying there?

I would also put some drawn comb in the new brood box to give the shaken bees something to cluster on while you "mess around" with their natural comb.

Have a queen cage on hand just in case you see her maj!

Good luck.

 

[shudderdun]

Will report back !
Fingers crossed.

 

[shudderdun]

All seemed to go quite well, rather pleased so far, will just have to wait and see how things go.

Think I will leave well alone now, won't move them just yet, just close the BB down to reduce the empty space.