Occupied bait hive....hooray

[Erichalfbee]

A swarm arrived in my bait hive....hooray.
I've never caught one before. it was a wonderful experience.
Now.....they are in a home made 6 frame 14 x 12 box so I have to move them pronto.
I thought I'd shut them in tonight, carry them to the apiary and shake them into their new hive tomorrow followed by a dose of Oxalic the day after.
I have some queen excluder taped over the entrance.
I'll put a feeder board on but there is plenty of forage about so don't know about feeding in a few days time.
Does that sound right? I'd like some expert advice if possible.

Thanks

 

[oliver90owner]

They should be alright if they went in on their own accord. So not a particularly large swarm. I used to set out six frame 14 x 12s with a 'Dartington half super' above, to make it about a deep National size (I normally only put in 14 x 12 frames for them, mind).

Sounds right, but I would use thymol, rather than oxalic acid, while there were open brood if I was worried about varroa (which I often was not - they should be OK until later in the year as most mites, even if many, were left in the capped brood with the parent colony). But your choice.

As to shaking - again, your choice - you know what they are on currently. I used to leave them with the old comb for a while, but I didn't usually see them arriving. Giving them a frame of open brood would be a good idea, especially if it is a cast.

Regards, RAB

 

[enrico]

If the queen is marked blue..... She is mine, send her back!!!
I know! Why blue? Cos I am the only one using that colour this year!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thanks RAB
In the box is only one old frame. The rest is empty so unless they are all on the one frame I will have to shake them out.

I'll give them a frame of open brood
2 hours after boxing themselves there is pollen going in.
They don't hang around do they.
enrico....I'll look for that blue dot

 

[Moggett]

Just leave the old frame in and when capped remove/freeze/destroy as most piggybacking mites should be in there. You could powder sugar then to knock off any stragglers before any of the newly drawn comb is capped.

 

[oliver90owner]

I'll look for that blue dot-

Hello! Enrico getting organised now, to sell this year's queens as over-wintered nucs in 2016?

That or he should not want her back at the age she should be!

 

[Grub]

Hi All

I thought with bait hives it was best practice to leave three days so they use up any honey they have gorged on before swarming and then put on to new frames ? cuts down on disease ?

I had my 3rd swarm arrive to day 4.00pm, I did have scouts going into the bottom of the "dalec" looking compost bin about 2.00pm but I am glad they changed there minds and went into the bait box instead .

Grub

 

[sharonh]

Ah congrats,
Hope it turns out to be a great colony for you.
My own bait hive had interest today for the first time. Never tried a bait hive before, as not too many beekeepers around me. I know of one just, and he lives 3 kilometers away.
When I saw the odd bee go in & out & then around it up and down, I thought it may be some of my own bees, but don't know. Will have to wait and see I guess.
Great news for you & hope all goes well.
Sharon


Love Beekeeping <3

 

[Erichalfbee]

I spotted scouts investigating the newly emptied compost bin so I put the bait hive on top

 

[oliver90owner]

Erichalfbee,

Change that suggestion of a frame of brood. If they are not from your colonies and have any nasty pathogens, it would be better not to give any opportunity of passing them to the brood.

RAB

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thank you, everybody.
I did this in the end :- I took the bait hive to the apiary and popped it onto a 14 x 12 MB poly with the entrance reducer out and a strip of queen excluder in its place.
I opened the entrance and left them for the night.
This morning I popped them in to their new home.
I had a quick look for a marked queen but didn't see her. The provided old frame was thickly covered in bees and I estimate another two frames worth of bees were in the box. They had already drawn six inches of comb from the crown board and there was nectar in it.

They are in a big box but it's warm and there is still plenty of forage. I'll keep an eye on them and dummy down if they are struggling.

I'll take off the excluder on Wednesday, give them a little syrup and remove the capped frame when I can.
So it looks like a cast after all. Not mine, small dark bees. They didn't bother us at all while we transferred them.

There are twenty or so back at the compost bin but I suspect they are the last few stragglers who were still out last night when I moved the box.

Fingers crossed.