Swarm just grab and go.

[Outlander]

Village Girl and I were asked to collect a swarm from a Garden on Silver Road in Norwich. Village made contact to find that the bulk of the bees had been taken Sunday by some beekeeper though this is not what I would call him. Village was told there was a large cluster still left. I was for telling them that they needed to get the "beekeeper" that just grabbed the bulk of them back but they did not know who he was. The lady that Village spoke to stated that her 13 month old daughter had been stung yesterday so at hearing this we decided to go and have a look.

We arrived to find the large cluster to be no more than twice the size of a tennis ball and 7 foot high turned into 14 foot or there about. Trimmed up branch and dropped it and bees into swarm box. Noticed straight away bees started to fly into box and fan at entrance so hope this evening they will all be in when we pick up.

I just hope I never come to be this way. Apparently he made it look so easy banging bees into box so why could he have not left it as we have to collect later. Oh if you are reading this you are such a big ****.

Rant over, now when we get these little darlings between us we are out of gear just right now all used up, so I don’t like the thought of doing this but we want to unite them with a small nuc colony and the only way we can see, is to use air freshener. So I'm I right in thinking small spray into nuc and also into box then shake them in. Advice please.

 

[Silly Bee]

If they went in that easy, you might be lucky and have the queen.

I'd use talcum powder to dust them, if I was dusting.

 

[MJBee]

It looks as if you have a queen in the small cluster you saved. If you unite it with a queenright nuc the queens will fight. You will have to find one of the queens and remove her before you unite.

 

[Outlander]

yep that's what we were thinking and if that's the case if anyone could use the q and cluster there more than welcome. now going back yo pick up.

 

[For want of a better word]

put you cluster of bees into a large green or yellow bucket and spray gently with very dilute sugar water

place a qe [plastic] over a brood box filled with frames and foundation and slowly sift bees through it... with any luck you will pick out the queen. a gentle spray will calm them down
i have done this with a small grist... i think there is a US video of it somewhere on youtube? fatbeekeeper.........

painkillers still not working !

 

[Outlander]

put you cluster of bees into a large green or yellow bucket and spray gently with very dilute sugar water

place a qe [plastic] over a brood box filled with frames and foundation and slowly sift bees through it... with any luck you will pick out the queen. a gentle spray will calm them down
i have done this with a small grist... i think there is a US video of it somewhere on youtube? fatbeekeeper.........

painkillers still not working !

Green and yellow, my bees support Watfod not Norwich City

 

[Outlander]

Checked through cluster yesterday evening and no queen. Time was not on our side as had to take care of this after work and light was fading and with lack of equipment we decided to use air freshener. Sprayed a very small amount on the cluster and also into the small nuc colony. Tipped cluster into nuc with in 5 minutes most flying bees had gone in to nuc. Nuc was quite noisy for a while after.

This morning normal activity around the nuc and no dead bodies outside so guessing this must have gone well.

 

[village girl]

Green and yellow, my bees support Watfod not Norwich City

but..... my bees support norwich city

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

Checked through cluster yesterday evening and no queen. Time was not on our side as had to take care of this after work and light was fading and with lack of equipment we decided to use air freshener. Sprayed a very small amount on the cluster and also into the small nuc colony. Tipped cluster into nuc with in 5 minutes most flying bees had gone in to nuc. Nuc was quite noisy for a while after.

This morning normal activity around the nuc and no dead bodies outside so guessing this must have gone well.

The swarm cluster might of had a virgin queen and would be difficult to spot, so could still have unite problems....

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Outlander, from your description, YOU got the queen and not the raider who took some bees before you. (Queens are often buried in the swarm so you don't always get them first time).
By uniting as you did, if there were two queens, you now have one I would expect. But which one?

Village girl. If I said that my bees support Ipswich, would you come and beat me up? (My eldest son would).

 

[Black Comb]

This happened to me earlier in the season.
Of course the householder did not tell me someone had collected the majority the afternoon before until I was about to leave (with the bees).
They did contact him but he said he coudn't get back - just leave them and they will go !!
I know him - he is on the local committee!!

 

[Outlander]

I would not say that I'm 100% sure but pretty dame close to it. We went through them with a fine tooth comb so I'm convinced there was no queen there virgin or not. We had two casts this year both with virgins that are both now up and running well so I'm sure we would have spotted her. This cluster was small, we went through each frame that had bees on then went through the box and separating into groups putting them into second swarm box before tipping into nuc. But if I'm wrong then we will face that when it happens.

This will be the third time I have collected someone else’s mess up and also once having to go back after dark to a swarm I collected as was impossible to leave box and on each occasion bees have been clustered and I know for certain three of those had no queen.

 

[Outlander]

Opened nuc up poor thing it's third time in as many days. This bunch are so docile I don't know if it's because they are so small that they would rather go about their business than take notice of us going in. Any way only one queen which is the one that Village Girl marked over a week ago so happy days I hope.

 

[village girl]

(Village girl. If I said that my bees support Ipswich, would you come and beat me up? (My eldest son would).[/QUOTE])

no im not violent but i do simpathise with you tractor boy lol