Hi everyone, I’m a new bee keeper, and attracted a swarm into a nuc about 5 weeks ago, while I was awaiting delivery of my flow hive. I finished putting together and setting up the flow hive yesterday and transferred the frames into the flow brood box, expanding the 5 frames to 8.
My first time suited up and smoking, it seemed to go well. I wanted to get it done before Christmas and lucky I did as the nuc frames were very
nearly filled, lots of brood. There was some comb on the side of the nuc box, which I scraped off. Does the larger piece contain pollen? There’s been lots of pollen going in so I thought that was a good sign of hive growth.
I didn’t see the Queen but I was working quickly with a quick look over.
All the bees are re-orienting themselves this morning, but some are still confusedly hanging around the nuc position (I took it away). The nuc was around a metre higher and a couple of feet to the right, I hope they will sort themselves out soon?
I joined the local bee society but haven’t met up yet. Read a few books, watched countless YouTube clips. I’m sure I will be trawling through these pages too.
See you around the forum!
Helen
Hi Helen, a small mistake you made was in not putting the flow hive in the same position as the nuc was in. maybe also the position of the orientation of the flow hive to the same as the nuc. But even so the bees will take a day or two to adjust to seeing the bigger hive as their destination so you will see some orientation flights taking place.
The dark color in the large piece of comb certainly looks like pollen so the move to a full sized hive was timed well.
Good to read you are soaking up information well and that comes across that you handled things well and in a calm way.
Regards
Thanks Peter, the problem was I had put the nuc box up high so it was impossible to put the flow up there. I didn’t think of that problem at the time! The flow is oriented in the same direction facing East at least.
I was quite surprised at the success of attracting a swarm. (I used a few drops of pheromone, swarm commander?) The nuc was sitting up there for about 6 weeks and I stopped paying it attention. One sunny morning while gazing. Out the window I noticed insect activity and I was so chuffed when I checked closer and saw bees tootling in and out of the wooden nuc box.
I used plain frames with a strip of foundation wax in the top groove, so even more happy the built their frames out so well.
As a swarm attractant you could try lemon grass extract when you run out of swarm commander. Just a little on a cotton bud wiped on the base of the inside of the hive near the entrance and on the top of one frame is enough, too much is definitely TOO MUCH.
Cheers
I might just add, that although workers and scout bees (from swarms) love lemon grass in small quantities, there is pretty good evidence that queens hate it! So definitely be carefully how much you use and where you put it, if you want the queen to lay.
Hi Helen, welcome and congratulations on the swarm capture, nothing better than free bees. I caught a swarm in a nuc around the same time (i’m in Semaphore).
I used a qtip with lemongrass oil on it and threw it on floor through the entrance, easy to remove later.
Next time you do a small move, place an branch of a shrub in front of entrance to force the bees to reoreintate as they leave the new position you can remove it a day or so.
Hope to see you at next bee society meeting.
