Congratulations!!! Its a swarm

[Craig1961]

OK..... Got to work at 7am and the hive looked abandoned. Heavy hearted, I opened the lid and to my suprise, about 10,000 bees greeted me.I tried to gently close the lid. I got it a bit wrong and lots of bees have been entering via the gap I left. I closed it this evening.

As the swarm is in the WBC roof, would it be fair to say the queen is also there? How has she got through the excluder?

My plan is to get to work in the morning, remove the crown board and the queen excluder, put a little syrup on the frames. replace the lid and hopefully coax all the girls down into the frames.

Set up is one brood box with frames, excluder, crownboard and roof.

I was a little conerned about the bees that are still trying to access the hive via the now closed roof. I also noticed 3 or 4 very large bees trying to get in that way. When I saw one, I thought this could be the queen, but a bit confused why there would be a few of these larger ones.

Any other advice would be welcomed

 

[oliver90owner]

Doubtful it will work.

I am wondering how they would get through a crown board, never mind a queen excluder!

You will need to dump them gently onto a sloping sheet (or directly into the brood box (after temporarily removing a couple of frames)) and let them run in. The queen excluder placed underneath the brood box for a short period (she may need to go on mating flights, if the swarm is a cast) may stop them absconding.

Anyway, congratulations, so far.

RAB

 

[Craig1961]

Thanks.
What will the QE under the BB do?
Will it just go on the mesh floor then the BB replaced?

 

[Box]

dont let them get used to a wrong entrance they can be very hard to get them to use the right one. and they will also be building comb in a rate that is surprising every time!
A swarm is fired up and ready rock as soon as they enter their new home.
Have a swarm sitting in a standart box (12*10) on starterstrips and today 10 days after they entered the box is completely build out, even some brace comb too

 

[richardbees]

Hello Craig, have you got any spare kit? If so I'd suggest you gently dismantle this WBC and tip all the bees into an empty brood box. add some frames and start a new hive.

You are going to have a hell of a job sorting out the current layout of the bees.

The 3 or 4 very large bees were Bumblebees!

richard

PS

Hello Box!

 

[oliver90owner]

What will the QE under the BB do?

The queen excluder placed underneath the brood box ... may stop them absconding is what I wrote in my post.

I wrote 'may' because it may not.

I don't know how your bees got into the roof space - this should be 'out of bounds' to the colony! If your crown board was faulty and she was able to go through the queen excluder, it won't stop her leaving if they were to decide to go. Nor will it provide an effective barrier if it sags and leaves a gap for her to escape.

Remember, don't 'run' the bees in, if the Q/E is fitted!

RAB

 

[oliver90owner]

Bumblebees!

More likely drones that could'nt get in? It would help if we knew how they ended up betwen the lifts and the brood box.

RAB

 

[Craig1961]

Not Bumbles.. I go with the drone idea.
I dont know how they got in there. It does seem the BB Moves about a bit on the floor. Maybe they got in between the entrance and the BB.

Confused a bit myself

 

[Craig1961]

No spare kit, Richard.
Will have to try to shake 'em down.
If it all goes wrong, I will try to learn for the next time.

 

[richardbees]

Craig, sorry if I underestimated your knowledge of what different bees look like!

Oliver's reply #2 seems the best thing to do.....pick a nice day (from the bee's point of view) and make sure you clear out the comb they will have made.

I don't intend to be patronising again but make sure your smoker is well stoked and you're confident with the integrity of your protective gear - because once you've started you have to finish!

Let us know how you progress !

richard

 

[johnfly]

sent you a pm