Moving hived swarms back to apiary

[hungerdunger]

I normally follow the "Less than 3ft or more than 3 miles" guideline when moving established colonies, but does this apply to swarms?

This week a swarm from one of our hives moved into a nuke box 100 yards from the apiary. We waited until all activity had stopped later in the day then moved it to the apiary, having done this successfully in the past.

However the next day there were some two or three hundred bees flying around where the nuke box had been. They were still there in the late afternoon so I put a nuke box out with a couple of drawn combs and when I looked in around dusk a lot of the bees were in there. Assuming they were from the swarm I re-introduced them and they were accepted without problem.

I'd be interested to know how other people would have got the swarm back to the apiary would you have done the same as us, or done it another way?

 

[jimbeekeeper]

I normally follow the "Less than 3ft or more than 3 miles" guideline when moving established colonies, but does this apply to swarms?

No.

Best thing to do would not have been to put the nuc box and brood comb back, and having removed the swarm, when in its new location stuff the entrance with grass...keeps them in for a few days.

Also spray the location the swarm was caught with some strong smelling deodorant or that bottle of Christmas after shave or perfume you never use...it masks the pheromone (UK spelling!)

 

[Steve Dyer]

What you did seems to be OK. You can try blocking up the entrance with grass so they have to spend a fair time eating their way out - this seems to cause them to re-orientate themselves when they finally do get out.

I think the "less than 3 feet" rule should be "less than 1 foot sideways but up to 6 feet backwards". They seem to be happy with quite large movements if it is in the direction of their ILS (Insect Landing System). Even so there are a lot of 6 feets in 100 yards

 

[Midland Beek]

Two swarms? Each with a virgin queen, ie. second swarms/casts.

 

[hungerdunger]

Thanks for your replies everyone. I'll certainly try blocking up the entrance with grass next time.

Midland Beek - no, it wasn't a second swarm - just a lot of disorganised bees flying around. I'm pretty sure they were from the original swarm and had just got confused after we moved the nuke box away from where they had originally set up home.