Caught this really big swarm last night. Well I did`nt exactly catch it, I showed them the Nuc box and they filtered in after about an hour. Its probably the biggest I have ever caught, about 15,000 bees or more.
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I have just returned from transfering them in to a Normal 10 framed hive this morning and could not believe that over night they had partially drawn up 4 frames of plain wax sheet.
When I coaxed them in yesterday evening I didnt have any dawn up comb so I simply sprayed all the wax sheets with sugar syrop. It seems to have done the trick. I have also put on a feeder to give them a really good star!
Wow!!
ReplyDeleteWow indeed and thanks for your help and support over the phone with our own swarm, who are now calmly installed in the ruchette, so we now have two hives of bees (for the price of one!)
ReplyDeleteAlways glad to help. Keep feeding both colonies. If the colony in the nuc gets away well in the next 3 weeks you may just be able to transfer it in to a normal sized hive. Have a look in the nuc in about 10 days. If no eggs then still give it longer. It is likely to be a virgin queen, that may need a little time to mate and return to the nuc to start laying and bad weather can hamper this. I have had some this spring that have taken double the normal time.
ReplyDeleteIf there is no queen in the nuc then I recommend you reunite both Nuc and hived colonies, providing there is an existing queen in the larger main hive.
Richard,
ReplyDeleteThat is a huge swarm. I caught a big one just over half the size of this one on April 16th. They draw up 10 frames in a week. Enjoyed the blog, will be back.