Swarms and Walking the Bees
Posted on Jun 6, 2012 in
Blog,
Swarming |
4 comments
On Friday I was planning to go to my local
beekeeping association meeting, stopping in to check my
bees on the way, but then the phone went, it was a
swarm in Swindon, in somebody’s tree at the end of the garden, right in the middle of a housing estate. When I looked it up on Google earth there were allotments and an industrial estate not too far away, so I’m guessing that’s where they must have come from.
I put all my kit in the truck, thinking I may get there, collect the bees and get back to the club meeting, but it didn’t happen, just before I got there I had another call from someone in Pewsey, so I said I would go there next.
The Swindon Swarm
The first swarm looked like a nice prime swarm, not huge, but big enough to survive without too much interference (provided the sun decides to make another appearance at some point in the next week or so). It was only a small tree, but of course they were clustered in the middle, so I clipped a couple of small branches away, put the Skep under them and gave them a good shake, most went in so I put it down on the sheet and they started fanning pretty much immediately.
A few of the flying bees went back to the original spot, so I gave them 10-15 minutes just to be sure they weren’t all going to make their way back there, then gave them a shake and smoked the area to disguise the scent, this made them find the Skep and in they went. The neighbour came out for a chat and made me a coffee and the lady who lived there insisted on giving me some money, which I declined, but she was rather insistent, so in the end I took it, so thank you again if you read this! Then I tied the sheet up around the Skep and took them away.
The Pewsey Swarm
By the time I got to Pewsey it was
starting to get a bit dark and it dawned on me that all I had was a spare hive in the truck, which due to where this swarm was, I had no chance of holding underneath them. The only option was to walk the Swindon swarm in to the hive so the Skep was free for this lot.
Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of either swarm because I wanted to get them in as soon as possible, having gone out to one a couple of weeks ago which had upped and left about 2 minutes before I got there, however I did remember to take some of the Swindon bees walking into the new hive. I felt quite professional doing it and it going exactly to plan as the people who lived there watched from a safe distance.
I set the spare hive up raised on a box, untied the sheet around the Skep and tucked one side under the front to give them something to walk up, then turned the Skep upside down and gave it a good hard shake and the bees all tumbled down in front of the hive, there were a few more hanging on inside to a tap and shake got them out.
By this time I had already trimmed a couple of branches and Ivy off the tree which the second lot were in, so I climbed up and shook them in, this swarm was bigger than the last, so I spent the next half an hour up and down the ladder removing any stragglers which had gone back to the original place and gave it a good smoking to cover any smell of the queen which may have been left up there.
Before too long I had both swarms ready to take away, so although I never made it to my bee club, it was a worthwhile evening. I got back at gone 10, put them out in the apiary and headed off down the pub!
The weather is looking pretty bad for at least a week now, so I’ve put some food in for them, to help them get started and drawing out some new foundation.
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