A beekeeping topic.

[BilletHead]

  Swarm 3,4 and 5 oh my,

    Last Thursday late in the afternoon a small swarm on the apple tree scion. Pat got home early from working on her day off. Not sure which hive it came from? Easy grab and dump into the layens quilt hive,

 

 Bare handed this swarm. They made their selves right at home. Queen inside!

      Then today things got really interesting.  Pat said something going on with the Utah hive. Sure, enough a tornado of bees boiled out into the air and onto the little apple tree but missing the scion. Now have to get creative.

    After settling down a but some tree trimming. Lucked out had a young man neighbor who made a layens hive and came over so we could make him some frames. Knows nothing about bees or beekeeping. I'm teaching him what I know (not much) to get him going. No time like the present to let him dive in. Suited him up and he went to work!

         He then snipped of the rest of the branch, and I carried it to the Cow layens hive. Shook them in and closed the hive! 

   Second swarm of the day. It actually started swarming out of an unpainted long lang as the first swarm of the day was settling down. Busy we were. Best thing it had settled on the dwarf cherry tree scion. So much easier to do.  It was another big swarm. So heavy a wad fell off and hit the ground,

            Not a problem when I looked through the dropped bees no queen spotted. So took scion and dumped into the fish layens hive. Then took and empty frame with drawn wax. Held it to the bees on ground and they all crawled onto it. Walked over and shook it off also into hive. Crazy. Closed that hive also and shot one more small video ,

 

    Queen in here too, new home! I can't sing either  

 

     We have one more hive to fill for our yard giving us nine full hives. Get that done and have plan on gifting six more swarms to others needing them. Share the love, share the freebees. Hoping they all come from swarm traps instead of swarms from existing hives. 

         

 

 

[BilletHead]

           The Sunday swarm,

  This is getting crazy here. Another swarm out of a hive. I carried over three hives from last season. I was able to tell where five of the swarms came from and I think the other as the smallest came from my hives also. Sunday Mayday the sixth swarm hit. I was messing around in the shop when Pat came in and said you have to come out here and see this. One of the hives was getting very active at entrance and as we watched the bee tornado started to form. I went back to the shop. Abot five minutes later she got me again and said swarm getting into a little brush pile where we burn over an old stump. Why there? Well Pat picked up the branches I had trimmed day before to capture a swarm. She pitched them into the stick pile and those swarming bees smelled that and keyed in on that location. I waded in and tried to figure out what to do. I went into the garage and got a single deep Langsdorf box and ten frames. Bottom board , cover board and lid Placed Some of the frames had brood wax and drawn wax.  I placed the hive close to the pile and made a board bridge between them.

 

    I had to try something to entice the swarm into the hive, maybe the queen would follow. The swarm was a mess and no way to dig into the pile and shake into the hive. I grabbed a handful of bees and put them at hive entrance. Not much movement and seemed disinterested. I needed to find the queen. So I went into the garage again and found another frame with brood wax and replaced the bridge. Bees then began to check it out. I was onto something now,

  We started They began to march towards the hive.

 

     When this frame filled up I put it into the hive and took the other and bridged it again. Now I had a bunch of bees in hive to entice better. We spotted the queen once and I tried to scoop her up and dump her into hive but lost her in the mass of bees. Marching continued,

 

   While this was going on went to the shop and got my queen clip. If we spotted her again I would get her hopefully. Well I finally did and snatched her up. Opened the hive again and dropped her in. Fanning at the entrance went wild as the bees were telling each other queen here new home. Then the real march commenced,

 

      Bees were landing all over me. One on the neck between chin and lower neck. Could feel it crawling around. I dropped my head a bit to look lower and I am sure I pinched her and a sting happened. Dang it. Pat scraped the stinger off and I put on what Pat calls my Amish beekeeping hat. Piddled around more dumping bees at entrance now that I did not have to worry about the queen,

 

     Went inside and ate dinner. When I came out pulled the frame bridge away. Put it away. Later on checked again. Not much left outside,

 After dark we moved the little hive right in front of it's new home. A long lang. To the right is another single deep Langstroth hive I overwintered. Not as strong as this swarm and I have a friend who wants it. I will move both of these hives a couple feet at night getting the weak one away and new one right where weak one was. On a nice warm day I will transfer from single deep box to long lang hive,

 If this one takes like the other swarms seem to have my goal of nine full hives will be complete. I hope to not have any more swarms to catch out of the yard but do hope to catch in swarm traps that I have out. There are people that want them if I do. I like to see freebees go to good homes.

 

 

 

 

[jdmidwest]

You have went from rookie stage to mentor.  Good things happening in your area.

Mine are happy with the added boxes.  Still no detected swarms yet.

Constant goofy weather here to keep them on their toes.

[BilletHead]

28 minutes ago, jdmidwest said:

You have went from rookie stage to mentor.  Good things happening in your area.

Mine are happy with the added boxes.  Still no detected swarms yet.

Constant goofy weather here to keep them on their toes.

           Goofy weather is correct. Me the mentor that is a scary thought. Just what I read and get from you and another bee guy I know. Really enjoy this and if someone else wants to try I will tell them what I have learned.  Thanks for your Input JD.

[BilletHead]

                 Two more big swarms captured since last post. Again, from my existing hives. Nothing yet in swarm traps that I have out that I know of. All I need to do is introduce one into a long hive and I have my nine hives filled.  Two of these swarms are in the back and will be gifted to friends. Hoping for more gifts to appear. May save one of two for resource bees and brood. I will spare you all little videos and pictures of new catches unless you want to see them. BUT I will share something pretty cool. Remember nine weeks and two days ago I started a gallon of Meade?  Today was the rack day. From one gallon jug to three-liter jug. A bit of aging again and bottle. this is how it started,

 

    A swirl of the in the first process to get things going again was all that was done. We today transferred bottles. Really clear and did a taste test. Oh, my I had no idea! 

     The air lock replaced for more clearing and aging.

    After the taste test I know one thing. there will be a five-gallon carboy ordered and the bees better get busy .  Was told by A friend there is no way I could bottle this and keep one bottle a year to age longer. After the taste test I am kind of believing him.

[jdmidwest]

I thought about the Meade and then I realized it just wine. I don't like wine.

I have a brewer at work. I am going to donate some honey for a beer he makes with it instead.

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, jdmidwest said:

I thought about the Meade and then I realized it just wine. I don't like wine.

I have a brewer at work. I am going to donate some honey for a beer he makes with it instead.

    Have you ever tasted Meade? You might change your mind. JD.

[Johnsfolly]

11 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

    Have you ever tasted Meade? You might change your mind. JD.

I have seen and drank others Marty that were not as clear as yours looks. There is a guy in Savannah GA that brews and sells a variety of meade flavors and alcohol contents. I like it sparingly, a glass or two (or flagon for those Rennfest folks😉).

[BilletHead]

           Here is some neat info for Meade. I found it neat,

3 Surprising Things You Didn't Know About Mead - Moonshine University

How to Drink Mead, the Fermented ‘Honey Wine’ That’s Having a Serious Moment - Eater\

   And then the how to I used to make our first try and batch. There are more videos in the series,

  

 

 

[jdmidwest]

There was a brewer here that had a pretty good setup.  I bought a growler from him to try.  And I have tried a few bottles from others.

But, remember, I have a goofy set of tastebuds.  Sweet things taste like crap.

The Honey Jim Beam is good.