First swarm collected

[Levitt53]

I collected my first swarm today. Oh my that was a buzz! Fortunately I knew the home owner so he didn't freak too much when I kept telling him that I knew what to do but had never actually done it before. They are there in a nuc at the moment. I'm picking them up at 7pm then dropping them round to my sisters garden for a few days. She's more than 3 miles away from us. I'll pick them up early on Sunday probably and bring them back to my garden and feed them then. Gosh I've had a surreal day. It all started with a Facebook post from someone saying beware an angry swarm of wasps!

 

[mjt68]

I collected my first swarm today. Oh my that was a buzz! Fortunately I knew the home owner so he didn't freak too much when I kept telling him that I knew what to do but had never actually done it before. They are there in a nuc at the moment. I'm picking them up at 7pm then dropping them round to my sisters garden for a few days. She's more than 3 miles away from us. I'll pick them up early on Sunday probably and bring them back to my garden and feed them then. Gosh I've had a surreal day. It all started with a Facebook post from someone saying beware an angry swarm of wasps!

If its a newly hived swarm you needn't bother moving them. Just move them directly to where you want them. I suppose there's a chance they'll abscond or return to the swarm site but never happened to me, touch wood.

 

[Levitt53]

I understood that I should effectively quarantine them. It's not a problem for me to move them so I'll stick with that I think.

 

[Hachi]

I'm not sure I understand what the "quarantine" will achieve?

 

[drex]

to be effective the quarantine would need to be for a brood cycle. If just for a few days as intended I would take them straight home. Never bothered with the quarantine thing myself, just vape with OA before any sealed brood, and keep a close eye. By now you will have done what you intended anyway.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I collected my first swarm today. Oh my that was a buzz! Fortunately I knew the home owner so he didn't freak too much when I kept telling him that I knew what to do but had never actually done it before. They are there in a nuc at the moment. I'm picking them up at 7pm then dropping them round to my sisters garden for a few days. She's more than 3 miles away from us. I'll pick them up early on Sunday probably and bring them back to my garden and feed them then. Gosh I've had a surreal day. It all started with a Facebook post from someone saying beware an angry swarm of wasps!

Swarms tend to originate from the vicinity they settle so if it's not far from your apiary it's highly likely they aren't carrying anything your bees haven’t already been exposed to.
Not wishing to teach granny to suck eggs but when you pick up the bees to bring them home do it in the evening when they're all in the hive not half the colony out foraging in the daytime.

 

[Levitt53]

Ok I must have read that wrongly somewhere. Never mind I'll bring them home at the weekend.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Ok I must have read that wrongly somewhere. Never mind I'll bring them home at the weekend.

Putting a swarm is quarantine is never wrong, however as the others have already said:-

1.You need to leave them in quarantine at least until you can assess the sealed brood.
2.If you collected the swam locally then generally it was from a colony that is local. (Tend to find swarms initially settle 100-200m from the colony they came from.) Therefore as was stated your own colonies will have mingled with the bees from that colony already.

Personally I still go down the route of quarantine (usually my own back garden) until I'm sure they are ok before moving them to an apiary that has 4-6 hives. It makes sense from my point of view.

Congrats on capturing the swarm btw the first of many I'm sure!

 

[Levitt53]

Yes it was a great experience.

I went to see them this morning and fed them 2lb 1:1 syrup. They weren't getting on well with the QE setting on the nuc which didn't seem big enough for them to get through. I've opened it fully now and must remember not to use it again. I had no real sense of how big a swarm they were but they were covering all 6 frames when I had a quick look. I hadn't planned on inspecting them today anyway so have no further info but obviously they need more space. I will now get my sister to shut them up tonight and I'll pick them up first thing tomorrow (Monday). Then I can inspect and re-hive them on Tuesday. This lark has such a steep learning curve.