Swarm landed in a traffic cone

[RogerIvy]

Anyone had this challenge? How did you get them out?
The swarm ignored three Ritz hotels and decided to sleep rough in a traffic cone. There was a swarm in there a few years ago so there were still old bits of combs.
I checked this evening - the cone is full of bees. I want to get them into a proper hive.

 

[Sutty]

They are open at the bottom. I'd just pick it up an solidly bang the base onto the top of an open brood box (with floor), hopefully dislodge most of the bees and the queen). Add frames of foundation and a crown board & roof. Leave it next to to cone and tip that over and wait for the rest of the bees to go into the brood box. Move in the evening.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

saw much the same last year on the M4 near Cardiff - they were doing tree clearance (I know the tree fellers- although actually there's only two, father and son) and they found a newly settled swarm in a discarded traffic cone amongst the trees.

 

[enrico]

Might use one as a bait hive!

 

[RogerIvy]

Might use one as a bait hive!

We had a National hive, bait hive (45L box made with OSB), top bar hive and the cone that they chose. Based on this I wouldn't mind a few more cones!

 

[Sutty]

We had a National hive, bait hive (45L box made with OSB), top bar hive and the cone that they chose. Based on this I wouldn't mind a few more cones!

Hmm, I've got a cone and some old scraps of comb......

 

[Alma2]

Hmm, I've got a cone and some old scraps of comb......

Left over from Uni days?

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Anyone had this challenge? How did you get them out?
The swarm ignored three Ritz hotels and decided to sleep rough in a traffic cone. There was a swarm in there a few years ago so there were still old bits of combs.
I checked this evening - the cone is full of bees. I want to get them into a proper hive.

View attachment 26429

Bee Quick?

 

[RogerIvy]

Managed to move them into the TBH, but not without a struggle. The combs, both old and new (just two days) did a good job of stopping them falling out. Wish I'd used my blower to simply blow them out. Hope the queen is doing OK. I'll leave them for a day or two and look for her.

 

[RogerIvy]

They took a while to build this (perhaps as the temperatures dropped just as I moved them). It's been warmer recently and they seem to be making good progress. A very small swarm I think, for the first few days they bunched up into a blob the size of a big coffee mug.

Should I even bother looking for the queen at this early stage or leave them to get on with it. Getting them out of the cone was quite rough and I'm nervous that we could have hurt her - but would they be building their comb like this without a queen?