First Swarm Capture

[Tremyfro]

Thrilling Beekeepery moment today.
I went out to the garden centre to buy some herbs and strawberry plants....whilst my OH was busy increasing our colonies. He spotted a lot of bees along the field hedgerow...right where he needed to lead a horse past. He went to investigate...saw a patch of bees on the ground and all over the hedge. Not leaving anything to chance after my dire warnings about swarms...he raced off as fast as a 70 year old man can toddle ...to collect a nuc...not any nuc but a 14x12....yay! He put it down next to the patches of bees on the grass...and within moments they were marching in.
When I got back they were all over the front of the Nuc....so we put in a frame of old comb...took a couple of pictures.....
This is our very first swarm capture.
I know you will all ask if it issued from my Bee Yard....well the answer is...definitely not from my original colonies. It is slight possibility from the bees I brought home at the end of April. It was a double colony which we split...it did have queen cells after the split but we reduced those and rehived into a bigger hive. There was also an overflowing nuc....which we split into 3...so I am doubting that they swarmed. You can never tell with bees...they do their own thing.
Now we are anxiously waiting for them all to go in...I think the queen must be in there...or at least on the front of the box. A few bees are still at the bottom of the hedge but we can't see a huddle of bees there.
Feeling like a winner today...lol
Exciting Eh?

 

[birdsandbees]

congratulations! pardon the pun but collecting swarms gives me a buzz!

picked up two last week, both Primes, I only took a Nuc for the first and they didn't fit!
I ended up collecting them at dusk and took them home with a good percentage still on the outside and transferred to a full brood box where they covered 10 frames (standard DN1)
the second I'd learnt my lesson and took a double brood Nuc just in case, and needed it!

good weather forecast for next coupe of weeks so expect more on the horizon.

 

[Tremyfro]

congratulations! pardon the pun but collecting swarms gives me a buzz!

picked up two last week, both Primes, I only took a Nuc for the first and they didn't fit!
I ended up collecting them at dusk and took them home with a good percentage still on the outside and transferred to a full brood box where they covered 10 frames (standard DN1)
the second I'd learnt my lesson and took a double brood Nuc just in case, and needed it!

good weather forecast for next coupe of weeks so expect more on the horizon.

Well done to you too. Our swarm is not that big and I think will fit in the nuc ok. Getting quite a buzz here too...lol