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  • Advice on my swarm catch

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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #10631  by Liam
 22 Apr 2021, 19:53
So, I managed to catch my first swarm today. I have them in a Nuc box awaiting for dark to let the last of the bees in before I close them up.

My question relates to moving them:

I caught them close by to my new apiary site, I obviously do not want them to relocate back to the original position of the swarm trap. So i'm thinking: I move them to my old apiary site tomorrow? and bring them back to my new apairy on the stand where i want them in 2 days?.

Is 2 days long enough?. As they were caught so close to my new site this is the best plan i could think of, correct if im wrong.

Thanks for any input. :D
 #10637  by Liam
 23 Apr 2021, 07:50
MickBBKA wrote:
23 Apr 2021, 00:33
Give them a week. Wow, very early swarm, where are you ??
ok, thanks.

I'm in the cotswolds oxfordshire. :)
 #10643  by AdamD
 23 Apr 2021, 09:27
Swarms lose their sense of location, so once caught, put them where you want them to live and they will re-orientate around the new location.

Good practice is to house a swarm (someone else's) some distance from your own bees in case of disease, and then check them before moving them to the desired location. It is also said that you should not feed them for a couple of days - the idea if this is that any 'nasties' brought within the bees gut, it gets consumed. I wonder how many people do that?

A good thing to do is to put a queen excluder under the brood box of the caught swarm for 2 or 3 days; this will keep the queen and consequently the swarm in place so they don't abscond. (Absconding is more likely if you only have foundation for them compared to drawn comb). Books don't always suggest this; probably because books are written by experienced beekeepers who will have some drawn comb available.
 #10647  by Liam
 23 Apr 2021, 10:56
My problem is today will be there second day at the swarm trap location. I cant get on my new apiary site until tomorrow and its very close by, I think by then they would just return to the swarm trap location?

Yes, I read about not feeding to soon, so I havent given them anything.

I have the queen exluder option on my nuc box which I have on

They had drawn enough of there own comb to make 1, 1/2 frames of cut out.
I added one drawn comb and rest foundation.

My other issue is they wont all go in lol, I had planned on shutting them up last night but about 500 bees were still under the box. Today I hope they all find the enterance.
 #10648  by Liam
 23 Apr 2021, 11:12
would this work? (i could move tonight)

move to the site where i want them, place a big board in front so they know they have been moved and maybe think twice before just flying off. Leave a nuc box at old site, put any stragglers back in new hive location each day?
 #10651  by AdamD
 23 Apr 2021, 15:14
I believe (never waited for so long myself) that the bees will re-orientate to a new site for a couple of days after swarming, so if you got them there tonight, you might be OK.
Remember that many of the bees in a swarm are not the older foragers but younger bees so they do not have much of a 'homing instinct' in any case.
Let us know how you get on!
 #10681  by Liam
 27 Apr 2021, 12:48
I will update on final outcome, but so far I have moved them to the new location, that is over a gate and just round the corner. I locked them in for 3 days and 3 nights, on the third night I stuff the enterance with soft grass and bamboo leaves and a box plant in the front and let them gradually come out. Today is the first full day they will be out, most are taking their time and crawling on the hive and flying around, so looks good, I have also seen them return. I have maybe 50 flying around the old site but they seem to move on and then some come back, but will sort them out if they try to stay the night there.

It seems I have maybe caught some native black bees. I must say, so far they are very gentle and dont mind my presence at all, time will tell once they have more stores and brood.

I presume no sure way of actually Identifying the race I have?. I think id like more them :lol:
 #10682  by huntsman.
 27 Apr 2021, 16:02
Hello Liam.

Good luck with your swarm. Happy for you that so far they seem to be gentle but almost all swarms are in good form (for starters.)

You say; 'It seems I have maybe caught some native black bees. '

Sadly there are no longer any 'native black bees' in Britain, as in Apis mellifera mellifera.

Yes there are pockets on darkish honeybees but today these are all hybrids. few British beekeeper have ever seen Amm unless they visited a beekeeper in the RoI

Brother Adam should have looked to Ireland for Amm before playing with Buckfasts, now defunct and swallowed up with the hybrids.

Hope you enjoy your beekeeping. It's a lovely hobby.