Can I A/S in the evening?

[Dilligaf]

I have not been able to look in my hive for a couple of weeks because of the weather. Global warming & horizontal drought have been getting in the way while the sun came out while I was at work.
Good job I looked tonight, there is in excess of 10 supercedure cells. 3 of which are sealed.
Old Queen is still in there (For now) & I have just spent the evening making up frames for the new hive I made over the winter.
I want to A/S, but can't get out of work early tomorrow.
Can I perform the A/S at about 6pm (As long as the rain holds off and my marked queen stays where she is.) or do I have to wait until I have bees flying so they can bleed themselves out of the old hive & into the new one?

 

[Mike a]

If you decide to go ahead then shake in 2-3 extra frames worth of bees into the split if the new hive is off to one side as a fair potion of the mature bees will return the old hive.

 

[enrico]

I would suggest that you have nothing to lose, other than bees if you don't do something....go for it.
E

 

[Midland Beek]

If you have to artificially swarm them you just kind of have to get it done. A big fishing umbrella has come in handy for me once or twice.

 

[For want of a better word]

If you have to artificially swarm them you just kind of have to get it done. A big fishing umbrella has come in handy for me once or twice.

OR a pop up Gazebo !!​

 

[Dilligaf]

Well. They beat me to it.
As I was leaving work I had a call from my wife to say that she had just got home in time to see them swarm.
The good news was they were sheltering from the rain in a cypress bush in a neighbours front garden.
I headed home as soon as possible & found a football sized ball of bees in the bush.
The neighbours were fine. They are one of the interested ones & were happy to let me play.
Did I mention the rain? There was enough to make the box soggy by the time I had gathered most of the swarm. No problem. Took them back to the new hive & tipped them in. Within seconds they sounded like an air conditioning machine. Very soon after they had found the entrance & were fanning nicely, a couple of trips to the bush had all bar about a hundred bees in the new hive, the rest have been buzzing around & found their way into one or the other of the hives and all seen nicely settled in for the night.
Thanks for the replies, they made the decision for me. Got to update my records now & get everything up to date.

 

[enrico]

Well done dilligaf......pleased for you.
E

 

[Mike a]

Ideally you should of left the nuc or whatever you collected them in under or next to the tree until all the bees had clustered inside before moving them to their new hive. Of course this may not of been practical and needs must as they say but hopefully you got the queen.
When you are next able try and condense them in their new home by using dummy boards and giving them a day or two before giving them some syrup or fondant late in the day as they will need it if they can't get out and forage due to the weather if the frames you've given them are brand new or predrawn out but have no stores.
You may still find a large number of bees in your neighbours tree for the next few days, it would be worth advising your neighbours not to go near it as the remaining bees may not be too socialable as they have no idea where the swarm as gone. (See my first comment)

Glad to hear you manage to recover them and hopefully they will go on to build up nicely for you.

 

[freethorpe bees]

At the risk of being shot down in flames, would bees have been fanning at the entrance of the hive if the queen wasn't in there? Just wondered...