3/26/10
Okay, here's the deal. My intention was to chronicle each day's beekeeping adventure, but here I am 3 days later. So,
I'm not getting off to a great start since I still haven't posted from
yesterday-- oops, make that two days ago. Working in flashback, here's
what's going on..
* Met with Michael after dropping our kids at the Waldy School -- discussed trading bee work in exchange for Davis going to Spring and Summer camp at Connolly (flash forward to today when he actually was at the camp, when he got in trouble one time during the day and my wife was late for pickup -- good exchange).
* Received a call from Anita on White Hall lane about a swarm, her husband Dave was a great help.
* Went by a "trap out" I am working on, also on White Hall Lane in Saint Helena.
* Cleaned out the bee stuff in the back of my truck.
* Hived the swarm from White Hall lane.
* Met Nate regarding bees he has had on the property he manages. The bees have been there roughly 6 years now. They look really good considering they have not been managed in years. The weird thing is I pulled out the monitoring tray and there was drawn comb and nectar on the bottom. The hive stands are for sided wooden boxes on end, so it would make the perfect place for a second colony to live. Curious, more later...
Football sized swarm in an olive tree on White Hall Lane, Saint Helena
TOUCH DOWN!
As a reference, I put football sized swarms on three frames. I offer some drawn comb. I do my best not to offer swarms honey and pollen unless I absolutely have to, not to say that you can't spread disease from sharing just drawn comb. I'm sure there are pathogens bees can pick-up from sharing any part of the hive that is sanitized by heat. I know in the last post I was going on and on about the "goodies" I offered the storm swarm but sometimes drastic times call for drastic measures. The two extra frames in the above picture are plastic foundation being used as follower boards. Not only is the hive body beat-up, but I'm needing followers too. Hey! It's all I had around alright?..
I cut and removed the entire limb the swarm was hanging on and lowered them in a 5 gallon bucket perfed with 1/16 holes. I easily slid the entire colony and the olive branches out of the bucket into the hive.
I added an empty deep on top of the bees giving them the space and privacy to get started on their wax production.
About
7 hours later the bees shifted to the far right side of the hive --
most likely the side the queen decided to go towards. Tomorrow I'll go
in and gently move the bees to the center. So much for my theory that
bees will automatically jump on drawn comb.
In this "trap out" we are trying to re-route the bees from coming around the post. Their hive is behind the pole occupying the space between two interior walls. The owner, Tom, has made a plywood cover that will act as a hallway for the bees to go an extra 4' towards a hole closer to the end of the porch.
Steel wool helps to fill the space around the pole and the plywood.
Think of the steel wool as our propolis filling the space we don't want
the bees to occupy.
The hole the bees will be using as their new hive entrance. I may even
end up running a piece of PVC from the hole to route the bees even
further around the corner.
Cleaning out the back of my truck meant taking my bike out. Check out my rack...
More later on our zero emission honey bee tree removal last week.
Nate and Davis hangin' by his hive. You can see how a swarm might move under the existing hive, maybe?..
Check out this salamander we caught by Nate's bees. Gorgeous but slimy, Davis loved it.
