Shook Swarm

[eddiespangle]

I want to start using commercial hives rather than nationals. I've converted a brood box with a Hamilton Converter but I'm unsure how to physically transfer the colony. I was planning to use a shook swarm method but I'm unsure when to transfer the colony. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Black Comb]

April.

 

[Heather]

I would suggest early April when the colony is flying well and good forage about- and before she has really settled to massive laying.

 

[RoofTops]

This still remains a controversial subject but I have become a strong supporter of the method. It isn't suitable I think for the far north but with the long season we have in the rest of the country it is very suitable and the bees do benefit enormously.

I have done them as early as late March but April is probably safer. Weather obviously plays a big part in deciding timing. Essentially, you can do it once there are enough new young bees to keep the colony going until the queen starts laying and the new brood emerges. Don't assume the AS on its own will reduce varroa - it does most of the time but I was seriously caught out this year with a colony that simply didn't expand as expected and the problem was varroa despite an AS being performed on them.

Worth transferring a frame of open brood to the new hive and once most of it is sealed taking it out and destroying it. This will mop up a lot of varroa. As you are changing frame sizes this will be a little more awkward so an alternative would be to give them a trickle of OA syrup about a week after the transfer.

Feed the bees with 1:1 syrup for the first couple of weeks.

Put a QX under the brood chamber to confine them until the queen starts laying eggs. Then remove it.

 

[MuswellMetro]

you could also do a bailey change later in the year, i would do it in full flow, perhaps when OSR flow is on


and welcome to the forum

if you do a shook swarm then i do late march in London micro climate, and the long range weather forecasts say spring may be early in 2011

 

[johnandyrob]

Could you not just put the newly converted national on top in a baily come change type of thing. There is some one in Durham that swears by shook swarms and has carried them out this far north for a few years now

 

[eddiespangle]

This still remains a controversial subject but I have become a strong supporter of the method. It isn't suitable I think for the far north but with the long season we have in the rest of the country it is very suitable and the bees do benefit enormously.

I have done them as early as late March but April is probably safer. Weather obviously plays a big part in deciding timing. Essentially, you can do it once there are enough new young bees to keep the colony going until the queen starts laying and the new brood emerges. Don't assume the AS on its own will reduce varroa - it does most of the time but I was seriously caught out this year with a colony that simply didn't expand as expected and the problem was varroa despite an AS being performed on them.

Worth transferring a frame of open brood to the new hive and once most of it is sealed taking it out and destroying it. This will mop up a lot of varroa. As you are changing frame sizes this will be a little more awkward so an alternative would be to give them a trickle of OA syrup about a week after the transfer.

Feed the bees with 1:1 syrup for the first couple of weeks.

Put a QX under the brood chamber to confine them until the queen starts laying eggs. Then remove it.

Thanks. Sounds simple enough. What's AS?

 

[fredbloggs]

Artificial swarm otherwise known as shook

Shaken not stirred (See still got it??)

FB

 

[oliver90owner]

Artificial swarm otherwise known as shook

A slip of the key, maybe. SS, it should have been. But you likely know the difference is much more than desribing them as the 'same thing'.

Any 'set dates' for SS are immaterial. Timings will depend on the season. When they are ready is the important thing. I think earlier the better, given they are fed a little or a lot as the situation demands. It would appear you are only changing one colony in the spring, so no real worries and you might want to transfer capped brood to other colonies, remembering that 80% of the varroa will be in there.

That may be very little (if treated effectively), but the extra brood (don't overdo it for any one colony) can be a help to the other colonies. Just wait until the time is right before making any decisions, apart from having the kit ready and available!

Regards, RAB

 

[Finman]

.
Start your spring with recent box. When it is time to enlarge the hive, put the commecial under the recent box + exluder.

After 3 weeks all bees have emerged and bees fill the combs with honey. Excluder is not necessary, bees enlarge downwards and some day the upper box is full of honey.

Be patient.

 

[RoofTops]

Yes it was a slip of the thumbs. I should have said shook swarm. An artifical swarm is a different thing entirely. What Finman describes is an alternative way - a Bailley frame change really. If the colony is weak or you live where Finman does it would be the preferable method and is still preferred by many here in the UK. It is less stressful and brood rearing is not interrupted but you lose out on the varroa reduction and way the colonies can rebound from a shook swarm stronger than they would if you did a Bailley frame change.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Y but you lose out on the varroa reduction and way the colonies can rebound from a shook swarm stronger than they would if you did a Bailley frame change.

yes agree, but i have never understood why they come back stronger after a Shook swarm rather just leaving them alone

i will be doing at least on SS this year possiblely about 3rd week in March depending on how the spring turns out as i had to use both Bayvarol and thymol this year on one hive

 

[Somerford]

.
Start your spring with recent box. When it is time to enlarge the hive, put the commecial under the recent box + exluder.

After 3 weeks all bees have emerged and bees fill the combs with honey. Excluder is not necessary, bees enlarge downwards and some day the upper box is full of honey.

Be patient.

Not forgetting to put the queen in the lower box, else you won't achieve anything in this case !

 

[Black Comb]

Eddie

There's an article on shook swarm in January 2011 edition of BeeCraft.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Eddie

There's an article on shook swarm in January 2011 edition of BeeCraft.

the postal delivery in your area must be better than ours, I dont expect to receive my copy until January if other delivers are anything to go by---15 days Newcastle to London 1st Class recorded letter

 

[Black Comb]

Yes came today with my Amazon books that were posted ord. parcel post 12 days ago.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

the postal delivery in your area must be better than ours, I dont expect to receive my copy until January if other delivers are anything to go by---15 days Newcastle to London 1st Class recorded letter

Mine arrived yesterday as well, in fact I was just about the read the SS instructions