2024 Bee Season

[jdmidwest]

Lost one hive out of 4 this winter leaving me with 3.  Good Friday I noticed one of the hives was bearding pretty bad in the warm weather,  too many bees.  I let it ride until I was actually home early on the Eclipse day.  Did splits on both and resulted in 5 hives total again if they make a queen in each.

Came back to farm this after noon and noticed a cloud of bees across the drive.  Swarm going on,  old queen left drawing away a support staff of workers.  Old hive will have queen cells in place to hatch in a few days and a new queen will take over that one.

Very big bunch of bees in a multifloral rose.  I took a box down and did the shake.  They all went in, off they went to the new location.  The old apiary in the garden.  6 now.

 

[BilletHead]

   Yea @jdmidwest!

      Good for you and the bees! We got one swarm that were hanging under one of our swarm traps last Tuesday. Where we had it set was near a house in a friend's yard. They came from a huge walnut tree feral colony where we get usually two catches each year. Anyway, the lady watches the trap from her bedroom window and called. It took over 24 hours for the swarm to move in the trap. Have them home now and introduced then into the new hive. Then we had a swarm out of one of our hives at the house swarm up into one of our dogwoods. Up pretty high. Pat and I got creative and was able to shake them out. So, we caught those also.  They now reside in a hive that got weak and got robbed after winter. We have other hives ready to swarm. Number are high in them. JD I know I should be splitting some but in my beekeeping journey I am not quite ready to do that yet. Baby steps right now. I will get pictures added to the 2024 post. 

[jdmidwest]

Standard Lang hives are pretty easy.  I took a full box split off the full hive, it was all brood, eggs, and stores on every frame.  Drones were running around everywhere.  The original hive may still swarm, but I gave them a full empty box of frames to grow with.

The other hive was almost the same way, not as full.  I grabbed 3 frames of brood and eggs with stores and added a few drawn comb to a 5 frame nuc.  Then backfilled the original hive with some drawn comb from the dead out hive.

With your long Langs, can't you put a divider in the there somewhere to break them up?  Let them run as 2 separate hives for about 3 weeks then look for brood on both sides as sign of a new queen?  Then pull one part out into new hive and open up the rest for production.

[BilletHead]

   The trapped swarm and it's New home. First the trap and 24 hours waiting for them to move in.

let them have a couple nights there then one night shut them in and brought them home. Set them right next to the hive for a couple days.

yesterday afternoon when most of the foragers were out opened both the trap and hive. Moved frames from one to the other. Dumped what bees that were left inside the trap that didn't move with the frames into the hive and shut it up. Removed the trap from the area. All took up residentisy in the Oscar the grouch and cookie monster hive. 🤣

   All the swarms we have caught from this walnut tree over the last four years are the most docile bees we have. The entrance is at the base of the Old tree. The couple that live hear mow and weed eat all around the tree base. 

[BilletHead]

14 minutes ago, jdmidwest said:

Standard Lang hives are pretty easy.  I took a full box split off the full hive, it was all brood, eggs, and stores on every frame.  Drones were running around everywhere.  The original hive may still swarm, but I gave them a full empty box of frames to grow with.

The other hive was almost the same way, not as full.  I grabbed 3 frames of brood and eggs with stores and added a few drawn comb to a 5 frame nuc.  Then backfilled the original hive with some drawn comb from the dead out hive.

With your long Langs, can't you put a divider in the there somewhere to break them up?  Let them run as 2 separate hives for about 3 weeks then look for brood on both sides as sign of a new queen?  Then pull one part out into new hive and open up the rest for production.

 I could probably do that but I have empty hives close also could use. Actually JD I am just don't want to do something wrong. I have a friend who wants to come out and do one together. 

[BilletHead]

  Hand caught swarm,

  Had to get creative. Put some parachute cord right below the swarm on the branch. Then another on outer branch above swarm. Used ATV to pull branch lower so not so high. I went a few steps up the ladder with a storage tub. Pat shook the branch on outer end dropping swarm into tub. Put lid on and dumped into the long lang. Repeating two more times. Got them in with the queen. 

 

 Bees fanning at the entrance. Queen inside come here to the rest of the swarm we had flying around. Good times.   

 

[jdmidwest]

My swarm settled in fine and was working well today while I was tilling.  All is right with the world in that part.

[fishinwrench]

Keep them to yourself, would ya ? 

[jdmidwest]

7 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Keep them to yourself, would ya ? 

That motor has been setting too long.

[fishinwrench]

4 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

That motor has been setting too long.

Yeah, and it's going to set even longer.  😅