I managed to recover a swarm from one of my hives. I have put a nuc box up on the fence where they always end up. The swarm ended up sitting above the box. I cut some branches and got the queen in the box. Slowly most of the other girls went inside. It’s after dark now. There is still a large number of bees chilling at the ventilation end. I’d like to get this box locked up for relocation
tomorrow. Should I try to sweep the chilling bees to the open end? open the lid and force them in.
Or just seal the box for now?
Hello Andrew, It would be a big help if you gave your location in your profile so we can give you better advice.
Normally a swarm will enter a box before dark and are happy to march into it. bit if the box is secure why not leave it where it is till tomorrow evening for the bees to go into it naturally. Trying to sweep them into the hive will be frustrating for you and for every bee you force into the box there will be several that are annoyed and come out to defend the hive. Likewise, sealing up the box, that means you will be locking bees out from entering the hive.
Let the bees enter the hive at their own pace and when the hive has settled in then move it.
Cheers
Central Coast NSW . I did a work around. I put the whole lot in a large esky. I’ll relocate it early tomorrow. It was a hard swarm to get given the type of tree. However it went well and now they are ready to move. Not a cranky bee in sight today. And we got some great photos.
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Andrew, think about doing a split in Spring for swarm prevention, it is so much easier and less stressful. To some extent you can do a split at a time that suits you.
Cheers
We had no honey all winter. I was watching the stores build and planned to extract some this week. I guessed wrong that they won’t swarm. They have swarmed each year so far. So they are active. I’ve not tried a split yet. That will be a job for next year I guess. Tomorrow will be a deep dive on both hives. I live on a standard lot so I’m keen to keep it at two hives. The other hive is building well and they are building out the flow frames. It would be so much easier if they worked together.
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