How to capture and hive a bee swarm

The reasons for bee hives swarming, when they swarm and how to identify swarms and swarming tendency. Capture and re hiving a bee swarm.

Swarming is an instinct that bees inherit and keeps the bee population viable which preserves the species. It is nature's way of splitting a colony and providing enough bees of different classes to set up a new hive that will survive and proliferate. The different races of honeybee (Apis Mellifera) have varying intensities of the swarming instinct but given the conditions swarming will occur. Swarming mostly occurs in the last few days of spring or the first few days of summer. The three major causes of swarming are:

• Overcrowding within the hive. During the build up in preparation to the honey flow the population increases tenfold within a few weeks and requires ample free space in which to expand. If there is not the room the brood colony will become overcrowded and the queen will feel uncomfortable. This has the effect of unbalancing the population and will start the swarming process. Overcrowding can also be caused by bad weather at the end of spring, as the worker bees are unable to get out to the field for food gathering. Externally an overcrowded hive can be identified by many bees hanging to the front of the hive or clustering near the hive entrance or on the alighting board. Internally it will be evident by irregular comb; comb constructed in any spare space such as the top of frames or in corners and comb will also be seen hanging from the lid of the hive.
• Lack of ventilation. Often found in conjunction with overcrowding but also a problem in itself. The bees try to reduce the excessive heat by fanning their wings at the entrance to the hive. One cause could be that the entrance still has the wintering blocks in place, which reduces the ability of the hive to breathe.
• Ageing queens. Queens can live up to three years, whereas worker bees during the honey flow generally have a life expectancy of about six weeks. The egg laying viability of queens reduces with age and by the age of two years the brood being laid is spotty and irregular. The workers notice poor brood laying and will start to construct queen cells for the supersedure process. In appearance the cells look like a peanut shell and are found in damaged sections of the comb or hanging from the bottom of a frame. Once the egg has been laid inside the cell the nurse bees will feed the grub with the concentrated bee food - royal jelly. The hormones within the royal jelly will change the ordinary worker larvae so that on emergence from the cell the queen is larger and has a fully developed reproductive system. This will be the queen left behind to continue hive population. When the queen cell is capped the hive will then swarm otherwise the queens will fight for precedence.

Swarming

In the preparation to swarm the bees will gorge themselves on honey as it could take up to a week to find a suitable location for the new hive. The first bees will emerge between mid morning and mid afternoon. After swirling around the hive in ever increasing numbers the queen will join the swarm. Once this happens the swarm will fly away in a dark, deeply buzzing cloud. In flight the swarm varies in size from that of a small car to that of a truck. The swarm generally only flies a short way before temporarily settling, usually on a tree branch within a kilometre from the original hive. Once settled they will gather into a tight ball between the size of a football and a large cushion. Having then found a temporary resting-place the swarm will send out scouts to find a suitable home for the hive. This can be a hollow tree but in a built up area it will more likely be in the eaves or roof of a nearby house. It is at this stage that the swarm can be gathered and re-hived.

Capturing the swarm

Locating the swarm can be tricky if you didn't see it emerge or the direction that it went but if you keep your eyes open for stray bees and likely locations for the swarm you'll have a good chance of finding it. Places to look are trees or shrubs that are sheltered and with few branches or a sunny wall. More often than not they'll have settled within 5 feet from the ground. As the bees are full of honey they are lethargic and easy to handle. This means that they are unlikely to sting. The best time to gather the bees is during the late afternoon as by this time they are resigned to weathering the night and are less active.

Equipment needed

• A good sized cardboard box with a separate tight fitting lid, also tape over any holes that the box may have.
• A pair of secateurs.
• Bee veil (nice to have)
• Gloves
• Light coloured overalls
• Sack
• A hive on a solid foundation and 2 supers filled with 16 frames of foundation comb.

Gathering the swarm

Once the swarm is located and you have your cardboard box, secuteurs, bee veil and gloves handy you are ready to start. Firstly clear the area underneath the swarm. Then very carefully start trimming any leaves, branches and extraneous shrubbery away from the branches the bees are suspended. This is a tricky, delicate job because the aim is not to dislodge any bees. If the branch is clear of all protuberances place the box directly under the bees holding as close to the bottom of the swarm as possible. At this stage it is helpful to have a brave volunteer to assist as a swarm of bees is quite heavy and having a tight, two-handed grip will save accidentally pouring the bees on the ground or worse - down your gumboots. Give the branch a sharp shake and all the bees will fall into the box as a gluey lump. If done correctly you will have managed to get 95% of the bees into the box. Quickly place the top on the box, ensuring that he lid is on snugly. You are now ready to transport the swarm to your prepared hive. If, due to difficulties, some of the swarm is missed don't worry, as they will congregate on the same branch again shortly, thereby giving you the opportunity to gather them later. If a second swarm box is available, use it now. If not, you can use the original box, but be careful as the bees inside will have spread over the interior of the box making it awkward to reopen. If the swarm has managed to settle on a wall and not a branch try sweeping them smoothly and gently into the box, you might have to do it more than once to get most of the bees.

Hiving the swarm

Having successfully boxed your swarm and transported it to the hive (carefully ensuring a tight fit of the lid if moving it by car!), you are now ready for the transfer. This is best performed late in the afternoon when the heat of the day has dissipated. Place a sack in front of the hive with one edge on the alighting board, the idea being to make it as easy as possible for the bees to enter the hive. Pour the bees gently on the sack. If poured close to the entrance the bees will start to troop into the hive immediately. On occasion I have poured the bees directly into the hive but have needed to place an empty super on the top. The danger with this is that swarm bees will start adding wax to foundation immediately (drawing comb) and if the empty super is not removed the next morning, the bees will start making wild comb, hanging it from the roof. This causes a difficult cleanup job later on.

Other points of interest

Main swarms happen just prior to the honey flow, which means that there is no brood to support and nurse as the nectar comes on stream. The advantage of this is that just about the entire colony can commit their energy to nectar and pollen gathering and large swarms can produce a sizeable honey crop during their first season if properly managed. Hives sometimes produce smaller swarms later in the season, but these exit the hive with virgin queens and therefore have a lesser chance of survival. The best way to treat these swarms is to amalgamate them with an existing hive. One method is to add another super to a healthy hive but separating it with a sheet of newspaper. Insert four frames, two on either side of the super and pour the swarm in. Very gently insert the other four frames and replace the lid. It will take the bees 2 or 3 days to chew through the paper by which time the bees will be used to the odour of each other and the only fighting will be between the queens. Generally the existing resident queen will win unless it is too old. The hive will benefit from the influx of extra workers.

One more point to remember about swarms is that they're not thousands of dangerous bees looking to sting someone and something to be feared but a wonderful act of nature and to be admired.

Often the way many hobbyists first enter beekeeping is by being given a swarm or gathering one themselves, so if you're keen keep your eyes open.

by Norman Wright

Source: http://ctct.essortment.com/beekeeping_rlih.htm

Record-keeping System For Your Hives

An important aspect of beekeeping is keeping track of how each hive varies over the year and from year to year. For example, sometimes a queen’s rate of egg laying will suddenly drop off, and the number of frames of brood will drop. Without a record of the history of the hive, it might be hard to note changes like this until it is too late for remedial action. Similarly, hive conditions vary from year to year depending on such factors as rainfall, nectar flows, and type of bee. All of these variables make it difficult to recall past years’ conditions or how a hive in the past reacted to changes in key factors.

There are many ways to set up a record-keeping system. One idea is to make notes in pencil on the top cover of each hive as to its condition, what you did on each visit, and any recommendations for future action. Or, you can number your hives and keep a notebook. Some beekeepers use a brick on top of each hive, with its position indicating hive status. I recently came across a record-keeping form that looks quite useful.



You can find it at this URL: http://www.pugetsoundbees.org/hiveinsp.pdf

You might want to print it out and give it a try. At least it would provide a general outline of what to look for as you open a hive.


Source: Tom Chester’s Beekeeping Tips

Tips on Harvesting Honey

18 Things a Beginning Beekeeper Should Know to Help Things Run Smoothly on Extracting Day

The following suggestions are offered for the benefit of beekeepers with a few hives who do not have a permanent honey house. They are meant to supplement the information in books where everything seems so simple and easy. Many beekeepers, including myself, have learned some of these self-evident truths the hard way.

1. Honey is sticky. It will drip. Every doorknob, shoelace, telephone and radio button that is touched while uncapping or handling wet frames will become sticky. Walking spreads the honey around on the floor.

Solution: A bucket of water to rinse hands and a dishtowel are essential in the extracting room, especially if you are married and want to stay that way.Turn on the fan and radio, and get everything else ready, before getting all sticky. The garage, basement, barn or porch are usually better places to extract than the kitchen, providing you can keep the honey clean. Watch the kids.

2. Bees in the extracting room are attracted to light. Straggler bees left in the supers will find their way into the extracting room and will tend to fly towards a window or light bulb.

Solution: A small exit near the top of a window will allow them to return to their hives if they are nearby.If the hives are not nearby and you have a lot of bees in the room, hanging a few drawn frames near the top of the window with a caged queen will provide a place for them to settle and create a nice nucleus colony when you’re done. A vacuum cleaner hose is an alternative. Don't extract directly under the only light bulb in the room.

3. Bees away from their hive are not inclined to sting. Bees carried into the extracting room in supers are normally extremely gentle, with no brood or queen present. However, they are very adept at stinging the finger that accidentally crushes them while picking up a frame or super. Beware.

4. Household items can serve as good alternatives to supplies found in beekeeping catalogs.

• A serrated bread knife makes a good uncapping knife. Use a sawing motion. No need to heat it. Change directions if it catches the wood. Some beekeepers really like using a hot-air electric paint stripper to quickly melt the cappings, but I haven’t tried it.
• Kitchen strainers, nylon paint strainers, and women’s nylon stockings can serve as good honey filters. Clean ones, of course.
• Tupperware and Rubbermaid both make good plastic containers to hold honey and cappings. Honey is acidic, so don’t use items such as aluminum and galvanized steel that will react with the honey acids. Stick with plastic, stainless steel or glass.

While there is a good household substitute for most extracting equipment, there is no good substitute for a good centrifugal extractor.

5. Let the honey settle. Honey that rests for a few days after extracting will not leave tiny bubbles around the rim of a jar.Be patient. Almost all debris left in the honey after filtering will either float or sink within a few days. A spigot just off the bottom of a container will prevent both floating and sunken debris from being accidentally bottled.

6. If there is no nectar flow, bees will rob honey. If the honey in an extracting room is more appealing than local flowers, the neighborhood bees will try to feast on it and tell all their friends.
Extracting is best performed in a closed screened room such as a garage, basement or barn, or outside after dark. I heard a story about a guy that brought some supers into his basement to extract the next day, but he left a window open. The next day he found that his bees had brought half the honey back to their hives.

7. Uncapping is easier with only 8 or 9 frames spaced evenly in a 10-frame super. The thicker comb means almost no scraping with the fork. After bees have drawn out the foundation the first season, return only 8 or 9 frames into each extracted super to make the next crop easier to uncap. Uncap all the way down to the wood on the top and bottom bar, regardless of how far the comb in drawn out, so the comb will be nice and even next year.

8. Propolis sticks to shoes and almost everything else. Extracting is a great time to clean propolis off the box edges and frame-rests, but if they are going to be scraped it is best to cover the floor with old cardboard, newspaper or a plastic painter’s tarp so there won’t be little propolis reminders of the extracting experience. Wax isn’t quite as bad.

9. Butyric acid (Bee Go) really stinks. It works great, and is the best way for most hobby beekeepers to clear bees from the supers. The bees don't get as angry as brushing or blowing them, but that smelly fume board belongs behind the garage or near the fence when you're done. The chemical bottle belongs in a plastic bag inside an old coffee can or something else that won’t tip over; this is stuff you do not ever want to spill. The almond-smelling Benzaldehyde smells better and works okay in cooler weather, but it still belongs outside. Bee escape boards work okay too, if you can install them the day before extracting, have enough escapes for every hive, and don’t have too many holes between the boxes where the bees can enter and rob the honey. My equipment is old and leaks.

10. Extractors, uncapping tanks and other extracting equipment are best borrowed or shared. Most hobby beekeepers will only use their extracting equipment one or two days each year. The rest of the year it typically gathers dust in an attic, garage or basement. Thus it is very practical and economical for several beekeepers or a beekeeping association to share equipment. The expense is avoided, and it eliminates the need for storage space. So borrow or share, and use some of that money saved to buy a few of the nice non-stick polyurethane candle molds. If you must buy, a good quality hand-crank 4 frame extractor will suit most beekeepers better than 2 or 3 frame models, since it reduces the spinning work and thus greatly shortens the extracting time.

11. Extracting honey is best accomplished with two people. One person uncapping frames while the other spins the honey. Very efficient and the conversation can be good. It’s not very stressful to a relationship either, unlike hanging wallpaper. If you have clean wax from an earlier extraction, a side candle-making operation is an effective use of time since candles take time to cool.

12. Warm honey flows best. Warm honey spins out of the comb faster and more thoroughly than does cold honey in an extractor. Warm honey also strains faster through a filter. Honey at 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 c) or higher will be extracted most easily. This is normally not a problem in the summer, but in cool weather a light bulb under a stack of supers overnight can provide a lot of heat if the escape of the heat is controlled. Don’t melt the wax!

13. Extracted honey absorbs moisture from the air. Uncovered honey also catches insects, so keep the honey covered.

14. Sufficient honey containers are needed on extracting day. Enough containers need to be on hand when extracting, so it is good to learn how much capacity you’ll need before extracting. In rough numbers:

1. A shallow super will typically yield between 25 and 30 pounds of honey, or 2 to 2 ½ gallons.
2. A medium (6 5/8”) depth super will typically yield between 35 and 40 pounds, or 3 to 4 gallons.
3. A full-depth box will typically yield between 60 and 70 pounds, or 5 to 6 gallons.

Actual yields vary due to the number of frames, how well they are extracted, age of comb and other variables.

15. Wax cappings hold a lot of honey.Wax cappings typically hold 10% or more of a beekeeper’s honey crop. Cappings should be drained of honey through screening. After draining, the cappings wax can be melted into a block. Melting is best accomplished using a solar wax melter, or by heating the cappings in an inch of water in an old pot. Feed the honey-water back to the bees.
Solar wax melters really do work well – use double-paned framed window glass and build around it. Alternatively, the cappings can be left outside for the bees to feed on and then thrown away

16. Utensils that are used with melted wax will not be used for anything else. Melted wax leaves a waxy film on every pot, spoon, dipping cup or strainer it comes into contact with.
Crock pots with an inch of water are good for melting cappings that have been drained of honey, but the pot will never be the same. Old crock pots are also near-perfect for melting wax during candle making, and they are often available at garage sales. Heat to between 150 and 180 degrees Fahrenheit; no need to boil.

17. Bad comb and rotten boxes should be replaced while extracting. Extracting provides the perfect opportunity to cull bad combs, frames and boxes that need paint or replacing. Have replacements on hand on extracting day. When short a few frames, frame feeders (also called division-board feeders; the kind that normally replace a frame or two) can be put in the empty spaces in the supers so any burr comb built there will be inside the feeder where it will actually be useful to prevent drowning when it is time to feed.

18. Let the bees clean the “wet” empty supers after extracting. Whether intending to return the supers to the bees or store them off the hives, the bees do a great job of drying supers after extracting. A stack of supers can be placed on a hive, over an inner cover that has a hole, and they will usually be dry the next day. Best to put them on the hives late in the day, to reduce robbing.

Every beekeeper has unique conditions, and there are many good beekeepers that use different methods, so enjoy experimenting with what works best!


Source: http://outdoorplace.org/beekeeping/extracting.htm