Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => HONEYBEE REMOVAL => Topic started by: Intheswamp on April 03, 2013, 01:14:47 am
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Ok, I hived my first swarm of the year yesterday. This is 50 miles south of Montgomery, Alabama. Naturally, out of my own yard. :-\
Last year all the swarms (that I'm aware of) headed in more or less in the direction that the hives pointed (south). They only went probably 40 feet from the hives before landing on the ground in a briar patch. This swarm headed pretty much headed due south. South of the hives the land slopes upward over a series of terraces, at the top of the hill is a hedge row of privet hedge, etc.,. The bees were hanging in the privet. I was walking back from a shed and happened to look up in the bushes and there they were. After grubbing all the bees out of the briar patch last year this was easy...hold a 5-gallon bucket under them, shake the limb, and dump them in the opened hive box....lots easier than picking them out of the briars! ;)
Those are 8-frame medium boxes....bottom box has comb in it, second one has foundation (I may remove it), third one is just being used for a feeding shim.
Hopefully I won't have many more from my yard....I wouldn't mind getting a couple elsewhere, though! ;)
Ed
(http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n153/intheswamp00/Honey%20Bees/Swarm%201%20-%20April%201%202013/th_IMG_0687a_zps785820f1.jpg) (http://s111.photobucket.com/user/intheswamp00/media/Honey%20Bees/Swarm%201%20-%20April%201%202013/IMG_0687a_zps785820f1.jpg.html)
(http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n153/intheswamp00/Honey%20Bees/Swarm%201%20-%20April%201%202013/th_IMG_0690a_zps6ab3ee2e.jpg) (http://s111.photobucket.com/user/intheswamp00/media/Honey%20Bees/Swarm%201%20-%20April%201%202013/IMG_0690a_zps6ab3ee2e.jpg.html)
(http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n153/intheswamp00/Honey%20Bees/Swarm%201%20-%20April%201%202013/th_IMG_0694a_zpsb6248a75.jpg) (http://s111.photobucket.com/user/intheswamp00/media/Honey%20Bees/Swarm%201%20-%20April%201%202013/IMG_0694a_zpsb6248a75.jpg.html)
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Ed,
Nice....Why do you say you may remove the second box? That swarm looks huge, I'd be shocked if you didn't need it.
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Good save Ed, that's a whopper.
Hope you didn't have to cut that little bush down to shake them, that's a nice convenient landing spot for you to have.
Good job.
Don
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Those hard to recover swarms make you really appreciate the easy ones.
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Nice catch!
James
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Ed,
Great job. Where'd you get the brand for your box?
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Howdy ya'll.
Jeff, I'm still debating whether to remove the super of foundation. We've got a light flow going, though the next couple of day are rain, rain, and more rain (I'll take it...been without it too many times!). The swarm was somewhere in between soccer ball and basketball size. If they don't need the second box now they will in another week or so.
Don, I cleared some branches out of the way to get to the swarm but the spot where they were clustering is still there. I'm hoping that hedgerow will be a "catching point" for swarms. What I'm thinking is that if they head south they will try to gain altitude but the upwards slope of the land will actually keep them down low and they'll run into the hedgerow. Well...that would be nice in a perfect world, anyhow. ;) The yard is in an open pasture in full sun but surrounded by pines to the north, east, and west...to the south is the upward sloping ground towards my house. Maybe the swarms will be contained within this area...it sure would be nice if they were.
You are so right on the easy ones making up for some of the hard ones, rbinhood!
D Coates, I bought the branding iron off of a guy on eBay last year. I'll look up his username if you want me to.
Thanks again, everybody. I just really hope I don't have anymore from my hives....at least not as bad as last year! :laugh:
Ed
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D Coates, here's a link to one of the guy's listings on eBay that I bought the branding iron from...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CUSTOM-MADE-BRANDING-IRONS-YOUR-DRAWING-LOGO-GREAT-GIFTS-CATTLE-HORSE-SHEEP-/160997862156?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item257c386b0c (http://www.ebay.com/itm/CUSTOM-MADE-BRANDING-IRONS-YOUR-DRAWING-LOGO-GREAT-GIFTS-CATTLE-HORSE-SHEEP-/160997862156?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item257c386b0c)
I ended up giving something like $55 for mine, including shipping.
Ed
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Your read my mind. Short read, more like a comic book... :-P Thanks for the link, I'll hit him today. There's another branding iron link active today you could weigh in on as you've got experience with this guy and it cost +/-35% less.
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I've been satisfied with the branding iron. The guy does them "free hand" so each one would be pretty much a one of a kind brand. He will send you a picture of the branding iron and of a brand from it for you to "ok" before shipping. I had a bit of an issue with mine which I voiced to him. In the picture that he sent me a couple of the letters appeared to be "hitting low". I voiced this concern to the guy but he said they were all "level". Here's the picture that he emailed me...
(http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n153/intheswamp00/Honey%20Bees/th_BrandBeforeFilingSmall.jpg) (http://s111.photobucket.com/user/intheswamp00/media/Honey%20Bees/BrandBeforeFilingSmall.jpg.html)
I finally told him to send it on. When I tried it out it was just as I thought, the "C" was definitely too low and did not leave a good brand. I laid a flat file down and proceeded to "level" all the letters down to the "C" level...about 10 minutes of filing and checking with a straight edge. It worked great, though a little work on my part. I think the guy might have just not understood what I was saying...who knows? Here's a picture I took of test brands I made...I think you can tell the difference between the "before filing" and "after filing" brands...
(http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n153/intheswamp00/Honey%20Bees/Hive%20branding/th_HiveBoxes_20120130_3974Small_zps05597b20.jpg) (http://s111.photobucket.com/user/intheswamp00/media/Honey%20Bees/Hive%20branding/HiveBoxes_20120130_3974Small_zps05597b20.jpg.html)
Even considering the filing that I had to do, I've been very satisfied with the branding iron. I use our old gas heater in our shop to heat it with. If you are patient and let the iron get good and hot (red) then your branding and reheating will go much faster....seems the longer you use it the better it brands.
It's all iron (no wood handle)...I had some cheap welding gloves from Harbor Freight and they work great...I wear one on my left hand and use that hand to hold the bar of the handle about halfway between the two ends...the end of the handle is cool enough for me to use an ungloved hand to hold it with. He welded the handle in the shape of a "W". It will be around LONG after I'm gone...I wonder what my kids and grandkids will use it for? :)
Ed
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nice size swarm,great catch.i love those big swarms.