Cast swarm and improvisation of equipment

[Flatters]

I was alerted to what looks like a cast swarm today which was found by my 10 year old daughter. It was the size of a small melon. She has helped me with a swarm before and spotted it. It was on a very thick bramble stalk and in quiet an exposed position. It has been very blowy here today and the temperature was around 12 degrees.

I had a nuc available, which is probably good for the size of the swarm, but I only had super frames. I ordered more brood frames a few weeks ago but as you would expect demand is high and supplies low so I am still waiting. I thought it best to at least give them something to start building on and when my frames come I can start a controlled replacement (i.e. take away non-drawn out frames and work the super frames out over a period of time.

This assumes that the swarm will survive. I did try and help by giving them a 1:1 syrup albeit in a bowl at the bottom of the nuc. I put a ramp in there as well to help stop ay bees drowning. Again, due to me be a newbie and not having a frame feeder I have had to improvise.

If I am right that this is a cast swarm does that mean the queen is almost certainly a virgin?

Is there any advice that I should follow to give them the best chance of surviving? I think they were suffering with wind chill where they were and they were extremely listless when I collected them. I put the nuc under them and cut the bramble into a short piece. When it dropped into the box they moved a bit but none flew about. When I put the syrup in later they had started to cluster on the frames.

 

[rae]

Given the kit at your disposal, you've done a perfect job!

I assume that the supers are undrawn? If so, you'll need to keep feeding, they sound like they had exhausted their internal supplies. Frame or contact feeder will be fine, whichever you get hold of first. They'll certainly need the ramp to avoid drowning.

Keep them somewhere warm and sheltered, and they should be fine. Once they get going they will build comb everywhere, if you don't get brood frames quickly, you will have to cut this comb out and put it in the hive when you hive them - we had exactly the same problem last year.

Queen may or may not be a virgin. You'll just have to wait and see!

 

[SixFooter]

Do you want to borrow some frames and foundation? I got a fram feeder you can borrow as well

 

[Midland Beek]

Those bees might do you a favour and build comb from the bottom bars of the super frames.

Better to not feed than have loads of bees drowning, which might be the case with an improvised feeder. You could crumple up some graden mesh/chicken wire and put it into the feeder as something for the bees to grapple on.

 

[Flatters]

Thanks for the offer Sixfooter. I missed a delivery today and had a card through my door so I have a feeling the frames are due tomorrow.

The improvised feeder is a small oven proof dish with a very large scallop shell as the ramp. There should be enough purchase on that to stop any drowning. I did say I improvised and these came to hand when I rooted around in the celler at my mother's house.

 

[Chris Luck]

Keep them somewhere warm and sheltered, and they should be fine. Once they get going they will build comb everywhere, if you don't get brood frames quickly, you will have to cut this comb out and put it in the hive when you hive them - we had exactly the same problem last year.

Providing the hive is vertical the bees will simply continue straight down from the bottom of the super frame in a straight line, no different to a top bar. I have some like that I picked up from someone and they carry on quite happily from year to year.

Well done Flatters, let's hope they have Queen.

Chris

 

[Flatters]

Thanks all for the encouragement. The brood frames I ordered arrived today so I will make some up and swap them as soon as I can.

I will also make a frame feeder whilst I am at it. I have seen some plans but there seem to be two issues; One is if varnish or epoxy resin is used the feeder smells horrible. The second is bees drowning. I was thinking of fixing a ramp in feeder to address that.

 

[barratt_sab]

I seal the inside with PVA, which seems to work ok, and doesn't smell too bad when it's dry. To stop them drowning you can float a bit of wood inside the feeder.

Or, like Hombre:

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10912&page=2

you can make them narrow enough that the bees can reach both sides.

 

[SixFooter]

I made my frame feeders from 6mm ply. I bought a plastic one and copied it.
I'll get the dimensions if you like. Incidentally, the plastic one seems to be a good bee killer whereas the wooden ones seem to be survivable.