Hi Bob, thanks mate. I hope you & Julie are well. Take care, bye
1 Like
Hi Dunc, thanks very much for the advice, I think we will have a look on Thursday and see what the girls are up too. If I have spare brood I will get in touch with you. I occasionally take out the corflute and have a look from underneath (as my stand is open on the bottom) so I can see the bottom of all the brood frames clearly even and up between them a little.
When you said you split them, do you buy a second queen, or let them raise their own?
Cheers Tim
I removed the existing queen with some brood and honey and bees into another box and left all the queen cells in the old hiveā¦ the first new queen should be hatching today or tomorrow.
Thanks very much Dunc, thatās good to know how too do the split. Will have a look and see.
Cheers Tim
Thereās loads of ways to do splits. I went with one of the most simple ways - into a nuc box I had from purchasing my initial colony.
Being able to see the bottom of the frames is a good first check for queen cells but in my case they had built them on the face of the comb, none were hanging from the bottom of the frames. Normally this is interpreted to mean they are emergency or supercedure queen cells but based on advice from this site and reading on the web, Iām very confident they were swarm cells.
The thread for my appeal for help is hereā¦
Thanks very much for the info Dunc.
Cheers Tim
I am a very punny girlā¦ 
1 Like
An update on my comment about the bees in this swarm not returning home with pollen. Yesterday they werenāt bringing any pollen in. This morning, just under 4 days later, the bees are bringing back pollen. They know what they need & when they need it. Beautiful.
3 Likes
I loved the video, Jeff and Wilma, thank you for taking the time to make it and post it. It is really great to have updates too. Hope they like the Lang better than the top bar! 
Thank you Dawn:) I was just in the process of changing my profile photo to that of the queen in the swarm. She looks a bit lighter in color than the one I sold to that lady, that was 2 years ago. Thatās the closest hive to my place that I can think of.
This raises a question. I wonder how far a swarm will go to a new home. Or how far will the scouts venture out in order to find a new home. Would it be as far as they travel to collect honey? Something Iāve been pondering about lately.
2 Likes
@JeffH Some interesting research on this in this document.
http://m.aesa.oxfordjournals.org/content/97/1/111.full.pdf
-edit-
Updated link to new source
3 Likes
Tom Seeley has put a lot of effort into answering this question. You might enjoy reading some of his books. 
1 Like
Thank you Dawn, I was thinking that Tom Seeley might have some answers to that. A lot of his work seems to be in the link that @RBK provided. It looks like, after a quick glance that 2kās wouldnāt be unusual. Bearing that in mind, thatās an area of over 12 sq. kilometers.
1 Like
supposedly bees generally travel around 2-3 kms from home- but can travel as far as 7kms.
1 Like
Take a look at this article/post
http://forum.honeyflow.com/t/how-far-will-a-bee-forage/6644?u=martydallas
2 Likes
Miles/ thatās what I meant 
Iām about to place 5 hives on my fathers hobby farm- there is a large reserve of native bush land about 6 km,s from there- I am hoping the bees travel far enough to find it. If not thereās plenty where theyāll be- a nice river with very large gum trees- nearby fields of canola and other crops- and a protea flower farm right next door!
2 Likes
Just an update, I arrived home this morning, 9 days later in time to video another swarm turning up, it settled in a convenient shrub. Again, this one wasnāt mine. I know they never are a beekeepers swarm when they land in a shrub near a heap of beehives, especially with concerned neighbors. I heard 2 neighbors talking over the fence which just doesnāt happen as a rule. I can imagine what theyād be thinking if I told them that the swarm didnāt come out of my hives. āyeah right!!!ā
2 Likes
Yay! More videos!..
1 Like
If youāre getting swarms now Jeff, then we will be getting them soon too. I need to check my swarm traps tomorrow and Iām thinking about some festy old brood comb I have in the freezer. To stay a bit hygienic I melted down my old wax a few weeks ago but this little lot were left out of the pot. I found them but the wax moths found them first. The larvae were only tiny but the freezer treatment has sorted them.
My question is: Would it be a good idea to put this old comb in my swarm traps? I was thinking of cutting the comb into three pieces, each about 10cm square and fixing them to empty frames with rubber bands.
1 Like
Gāday Bob, I think that should work. Thereās a couple of things to consider. The inside measurements, is there enough room for the bees to expand into & will the colony be safe from predators in their new home. Natural predators being bears & honey badgers. The scouts will determine all that. Your swarm trap has to be better in the eyes of the scouts than anything else in the district. Good luck with that, cheers
1 Like