Hive #4 Spilled It’s Secrets

On Sunday, I had plans to check out hive #4 and to add frames with pulled bee comb into hive #3 and Hive #7. Also to check on hive in #6 location to see if they have released the queen. Also, on my list was to split the hive that I had at Burr Farm. Hive #4, had different plans for me, and they decided to swarm. Thankfully, they landed in a pine tree within our reach. We also noticed a different swarm up high in a maple tree. That swarm probably, spent the night up there, while looking for a new home. We missed setting up our swarm trap timely to catch that swarm. Though, I did have another swarm trap, which bees were checking out and I missed the cues that they were sending to me. Swarm season is upon us keepers of the bees.

So what did the swarm from Hive #4 tell me? They have swarmed before Sunday, this spring. How do I know? That hive had a marked queen bee, with a green dot. I saw a queen, she didn’t have a green dot. The other option is that the queen died, yet I’m leaning to swarming because there were a lot of bees at one point and suddenly there were a lot less from the outside perspective. That doesn’t mean, I am right, but that is my gut feeling and I am going with that.

This swarm capture was almost text book, we shook the bees from the tree an into a hive box. There were some bees still hanging out on a branch and I start scooping them in to the hive. I spotted the queen a couple of times on the trunk, but I kept on missing getting her in the queen clip. With each scoop of bees that we placed onto the frames, we were checking to see if we got the queen. On one of the last scoops, the saw her, we tried to get her into a queen clip, but she scurried into the hive box. At this point, we felt safe that the swarm was secure, we watched the bees that were left on the trunk of the tree disperse into the hive. Success!

I went on to the next task that was a priority for me was splitting the hives at Burr Farm. I was getting pulled frames of comb together in a hive body/brood box, pulled honey comb in a honey super, bottom board, queen excluder, etc. I was almost done with getting my gear together, when I decided to check on the swarm. It seems the queen wanted more time in the sun because I found the swarm on the ground and the hive was empty. Ugh, so I moved the hive on to the ground and close to them. Tried to push the bees closer to the hive, no one seemed to want to move in. I would get glimpses of the queen and I tried to get her into my queen clip and then it broke. I decided to try a new route, swarm lure. I opened my jar with swarm lure. The bees seemed to be happily attracted to, I dropped some lure into the hive and that started the bees to fan the entrance. I watched the bees enter the hive and I also watched the queen weave in and out of the bees as though she didn’t want to go into the hive. As the bees went in the hive, she eventually did as well.

On a side note, during our initial capture of the swarm from Hive #4, Jim noticed a small pile of bees on the ground, which he pointed out to me. So I got on the ground (this was before I broke the queen clip), and dug through that small pile of bees and got to an injured queen. I got her into a queen clip with attendant bees, placed her in a box that I had a queen shipped to me in, but unfortunately she didn’t make it.

After that and when I felt that swarm was secure, Jim and I went on and did the split the hive at Burr Farm. We set up the new hive, pulled frames from the hive that was currently there and place them into the new hive. After that the hive that was currently there got a queen excluder and a honey super. While the new hive got a full bucket of sugar water for food. Hopefully, the new hive will create a queen and the older hive doesn’t swarm.

From March until that Sunday, I have tripled my bee yard from three hives/colonies to nine. I will have to see where this takes me. Beekeeping is always an adventure, it keeps me on my toes, and like myself with beekeeping, doesn’t seem to follow the “rules”. Nature is going to do what she seems fit to keep nature going forward. I enjoy every moment of it.