Today's lesson

[SER]

Today my bees taught me the value of putting a queen excluder under a hived swarm.

Mid afternoon the swarm I hived yesterday flooded out and flew around for about 10 minutes, as I was standing there thinking 'oh bu***r' and waiting for them to settle they all returned to the hive, formed an orderly cue and marched inside. Thank god for the queen includer!

It was the first swarm I have dealt with and I will certainly continue to use a queen includer in the future!

Si.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Okay as long as they don't have a virgin queen that needs to mate.

 

[gandalfwhitewizard]

remove the includer after a couple of days and then they are more likely to stay and she'll still be mated. Where's the problem? Either that or they are trying to loose the surplus queens?

 

[SER]

I was planning to remove it in a day or two, they have some syrup on so I thought I would give them a few days to draw some comb and then hopefully they'll be more inclined to stay.

Si.

 

[BKF Admin]

You could always add a frame of brood to help them stay around.

 

[sherwood]

couldnt agree more admin I was just about to suggest the same.

 

[SER]

That was going to be my next move, I'll see how they are tomorrow and give the brood if needs be.

Thanks Si.