Saturday 2 May 2015

Paul's swarm.....

It's not at all embarrassing to get home from a afternoon's beekeeping and find 'im indoors outside surveying his ability to capture a swarm...


I'd missed all the excitement but thanks to his handy camera phone P hadn't!

Firstly the swarm thought it might be a good idea to settle in the rosebush that separates us from next door...

 

But then some of them settled on the edge of the fruit cage....


They buzzed around between both sites for a while but then the queen must have settled with the lot on the  fruit cage and so everyone in the rosebush piled across the garden to join them....

 

 

Thankfully 'im indoors has had a fair amount of practice (*snigger*) at catching swarms so he knew exactly what to do!

Pop a box nearby, on a white sheet so that the inside of the box looks inviting brush a few bees inand hope the word spreads that they've found a great new place to live...be patient....and gradually they will all walk into the box...

 

See.....


Suddenly hanging around on a fruitcage support doesn't seem like such a great idea....


Anyway it was beginning to get a bit chilly so we decided that it would be a good idea to get the bees into a hive as soon as we could.  With swarms there is a bit of a "finders keepers" rule so he who gets to find the swarm gets to hive the swarm. So a nice clean box from my spring cleaning last month


open the box ....

 




Peak in to see just how many there really are...


shake into the box...(yup that's a lot of bees!)


add frames of foundation wax gently and then put the crown board and roof on...

 

Of course, after last year, I'll just be relieved to see them still there tomorrow!!

4 comments:

  1. Mini me is 4,411 miles away and still has the willies just looking at these pictures. Am relieved to see as the events progressed Paul donned a bee suit!! Was a bit worried for him and what might swarm into his tea mug (was there honey in that tea??).

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  2. Hey Mini Me - nothing to worry about he had his suit on earlier, I arrived home as he was feeling justifiably proud of encouraging 90" of the swarm into the box. Swarming bees are VERY docile - they have 3 days worth of honey in their tummys so it has a "Sunday Lunch"effect... though you do have to stand / walk through it to really believe it!!!

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  3. 90" no no no I meant 90%!!

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  4. So early on in the season ..... good to see Paul has not lost his skills from last year!! :)

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