Walking in

[ShinySideUp]

Went to my local pub yesterday where a swarm have landed on top of a metal storage container. Apparently they'd been there a couple of days and were in a bit of a sorry state due to having no protection from the rain. I was wondering how I was going to get them up and considered using a dustpan and brush but decided before I fiddled about I'd get a nuc box with a couple of frames in it so I had somewhere to put the bees. I out the nuc box next to the bees and before I had time to do anything they all started just walking into the box! It was so cute. I watched for while hoping all the stragglers would get in but two or three hours later there were still some on the container roof. I swept a few of them up with a bee brush and put them near the entrance and many went in but in the end I had to seal it up and take it away leaving a few to fend for themselves.

Quite a delight watching them walking in; my first time.

 

[user 6228]

Question what colour was your nuc.. was it a light or dark shade?

 

[Ian123]

Skeps are about as light a colour as you could want and people have been walking bees into those for hundreds of years. As long as it’s dark inside the colour of the outside is rather an irrelevance.

 

[beeno]

Yes, it is an amazing sight! Put a good feed on them.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

As long as it’s dark inside the colour of the outside is rather an irrelevance.

But.... all my nucs have almost white walls inside.

 

[ericbeaumont]

Question what colour was your nuc.. was it a light or dark shade?

Derek, does your query relate to thermal efficiency or swarm attraction?

 

[For want of a better word]

Went to my local pub yesterday where a swarm have landed on top of a metal storage container. Apparently they'd been there a couple of days and were in a bit of a sorry state due to having no protection from the rain. I was wondering how I was going to get them up and considered using a dustpan and brush but decided before I fiddled about I'd get a nuc box with a couple of frames in it so I had somewhere to put the bees. I out the nuc box next to the bees and before I had time to do anything they all started just walking into the box! It was so cute. I watched for while hoping all the stragglers would get in but two or three hours later there were still some on the container roof. I swept a few of them up with a bee brush and put them near the entrance and many went in but in the end I had to seal it up and take it away leaving a few to fend for themselves.

Quite a delight watching them walking in; my first time.

Well done!
Will buy you a pint in the Vic? when all this pandemicamonium is over

Chons da

 

[Ian123]

But.... all my nucs have almost white walls inside.

I did mean light not the shade it’s decorated

 

[user 6228]

Derek, does your query relate to thermal efficiency or swarm attraction?

Part of my experiment involved walking lots of swarms into artificial trees (total of about 25) , where i could not dump bees into. This differs from normal beekeeping where you are able to put at least some of the bees inside. I found great difficulty walking swarms into pale pine entrances with every swarm reluctant to enter until i changed the opening to be wider darker opening. I then changed the design putting dark paint on the structure and charcoal to darken the wood round the entrance. The difference was dramatic- night and day. One example was seeing the sight was the queen running over the top of bees towards the entrance. After making the change there were no more failures getting the bees to enter even much smaller entrances.

 

[Fritillary]

Well. That's really interesting! I won't forget that with my bait hives.

 

[Swarm]

Part of my experiment involved walking lots of swarms into artificial trees (total of about 25) , where i could not dump bees into. This differs from normal beekeeping where you are able to put at least some of the bees inside. I found great difficulty walking swarms into pale pine entrances with every swarm reluctant to enter until i changed the opening to be wider darker opening. I then changed the design putting dark paint on the structure and charcoal to darken the wood round the entrance. The difference was dramatic- night and day. One example was seeing the sight was the queen running over the top of bees towards the entrance. After making the change there were no more failures getting the bees to enter even much smaller entrances.

Nice.

 

[ShinySideUp]

Question what colour was your nuc.. was it a light or dark shade?

It is white. It's a Paynes nuc with a 1 1/2 inch entrance hole.

Yes, it is an amazing sight! Put a good feed on them.

I have put used frames in that have quite a bit of honey already in them.

Well done!
Will buy you a pint in the Vic? when all this pandemicamonium is over

Chons da

You're on.

 

[For want of a better word]

Quote:
Originally Posted by For want of a better word View Post
Well done!
Will buy you a pint in the Vic? when all this pandemicamonium is over

Chons da
You're on.

Keep the Shiny side up!!

Yeghes da

Dave

 

[Madge]

... I watched for while hoping all the stragglers would get in but two or three hours later there were still some on the container roof. I swept a few of them up with a bee brush and put them near the entrance and many went in but in the end I had to seal it up and take it away leaving a few to fend for themselves. ...

Next time, a light misting with water (using something like a plant spray bottle) might help to get the stragglers to move inside.

 

[Murox]

Part of my experiment involved walking lots of swarms into artificial trees (total of about 25) , where i could not dump bees into. This differs from normal beekeeping where you are able to put at least some of the bees inside. I found great difficulty walking swarms into pale pine entrances with every swarm reluctant to enter until i changed the opening to be wider darker opening. I then changed the design putting dark paint on the structure and charcoal to darken the wood round the entrance. The difference was dramatic- night and day. One example was seeing the sight was the queen running over the top of bees towards the entrance. After making the change there were no more failures getting the bees to enter even much smaller entrances.

I have heard and read about using charcoal to blacken hive entrances in the past, there does seem to be a bee preference for a black hole of a certain size - I made a hive with an OMF and a 25mm circular main entrance about a third of the way up the side and made sure all the 'visible from outside' area was black - works very well indeed.(there is a secondary entrance the size of a varroa pan heater as well but its normally shut).