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Author Topic: Swarm Removal today  (Read 4279 times)

Offline capt44

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Swarm Removal today
« on: November 03, 2013, 01:36:25 am »
This afternoon I received a swarm call around 4pm, now it gets dark around 6:30pm or so.
I figured it would be a nest of wasp but went and sure enough there was a cluster of honey bees on a redbud limb.
I used my bee vac for it was faster and brought them home.
It was a cluster around 3 pounds.
I don't know whether the queen was there or not but it was a tight cluster.
I brought them inside the house for tonight for it is suppose to get down to 36 degrees F.
I sprayed them lightly with sugar syrup for feed.
Tomorrow when it warms up I'm going to put them in a 6 frame hive and give them some 2-1 sugar syrup with Pro Health.
Day after tomorrow I plan to merge them with another hive.
I feel that is the only way I can get them ready for winter.
October 2nd is kinda late in my book to get bees to overwinter.
Any suggestions will be greatfully appreiciated.
Richard Vardaman (capt44)

Offline OldMech

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Re: Swarm Removal today
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2013, 10:02:56 am »
I got a call for a cutout yesterday... I am attempting to get them to let me wait until spring.. If I HAVE to get them out right now.. I will do pretty much exactly what you have mentioned with them Capt...
39 Hives and growing.  Havent found the end of the comfort zone yet.

Offline capt44

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Re: Swarm Removal today
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2013, 08:28:33 pm »
I've been getting calls for Trap-outs on buildings and trees.
I'm doing like you and putting them off until spring.
I put the swarm in a super on top of another bunch of bees, I placed newspaper and sprayed it down with sugar syrup and placed the super on top of that.
I dumped the bees in and give them a couple of squirts of sugar syrup and put a gallon ziplock baggie with 2-1 sugar syrup and Pro Health.
they took to the feed immediately.
I'll check back on them in 2 days, they ought to be joined or close.
Richard Vardaman (capt44)

Moots

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Re: Swarm Removal today
« Reply #3 on: November 03, 2013, 10:14:52 pm »
Got a call from a woman Friday morning about some bees I had looked at for her about a week ago in a Cox Cable Pedestal.  She said a Cox repairman was in the neighborhood and said he would be there a while if I wanted to come get the bees.  Honestly, this late in the season, I really didn't want to mess with them, but hated to tell her no and figured the bees would be killed if I didn't go. 

The Pedestal was surrounded by three big bushes and I had to get pretty aggressive just to get the pedestal lifted off.  Quite a bit of fermented honey, and very little brood.  No luck spotting the queen, tough conditions, not to mention the Pedestal went below ground level for nearly a foot.  Between that and the contents of the Pedestal, made vacuuming bees and looking for a queen a bit challenging. 

Decided that their best chance was to just to a newspaper combine with one of my smaller hives. 

Capt44...Curious, why did you wait a day before doing the combine? 

Offline capt44

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Re: Swarm Removal today
« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2013, 12:07:07 am »
I wanted the bees to be settled in.
When you pour the bees in the box they have a tendency to fly around.
This way the bees are settled and I get all of them in the combine.
I put a ziplock baggie 3/4 full of 2-1 sugar syrup with pro health and they literally jumped on the bag.
Those gals were hungry.
Today I put a sheet of newspaper on the hive and sprayed it with sugar syrup and placed the box with the new bees on top.
I put the spacer on top and placed the baggie back on top.
So far so good.
Richard Vardaman (capt44)

Offline D Coates

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Re: Swarm Removal today
« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2013, 10:21:40 am »
I'm just stunned you got a swarm call on Nov. 3rd.  I haven't gotten a swarm call since early June and the latest I'd gotten in the past was early Sept.  Good luck!
Ninja, is not in the dictionary.  Well played Ninja's, well played...

Offline Newtobees

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Re: Swarm Removal today
« Reply #6 on: March 09, 2014, 10:23:36 am »
Capt,

     Newb question...When you put the newspaper with the sugar syrup in between the two, do they "eat" their way through to one another? 

Thanks,
NTB

Moots

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Re: Swarm Removal today
« Reply #7 on: March 09, 2014, 11:36:02 am »

     Newb question...When you put the newspaper with the sugar syrup in between the two, do they "eat" their way through to one another?  


NTB,
They simply chew through the Newspaper...It's called a newspaper combine.  The time it takes them to make there way through it allows for a mingling of the pheromones which allows the two sets of bees to accept one another.
There's several different minor approaches to doing it, personally, I don't use any sugar water, just simply a single dry sheet of newspaper with a few slits cut into it.  Within hours you'll start to see little piles of shredded newspaper being deposited outside the hive.

One word of caution, if you do a newspaper combine, especially on a hot day, you want to make sure that you have an entrance for the bees on top also....you don't want them to cook before the merger is made.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2014, 11:19:10 pm by Moots »

Offline Newtobees

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Re: Swarm Removal today
« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2014, 01:32:51 pm »
Thanks Moots!  I would not have thought about the top entrance/exit.
NTB

Offline greenbtree

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Re: Swarm Removal today
« Reply #9 on: March 14, 2014, 07:53:56 pm »
"One word of caution, if you do a newspaper combine, especially on a hot day, you want to make sure that you have an entrance for the bees on top also...you don't want them to cook before the merger is made."

Yeah, I made that newbie mistake once, not pretty :roll:

JC
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Offline HomeSteadDreamer

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Re: Swarm Removal today
« Reply #10 on: March 15, 2014, 04:14:01 pm »
Got a swarm call today.  nice little circle of bees on a wall 2ft of the ground.  Think we got the queen but didn't see her they were several layers deep and tightly clustered.  Put the majority in a box and left them to lure in the rest.  We'll pick the box up at night fall.  If there isn't a queen I'll give them a frame of eggs from my favorite hive.

Offline capt44

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Re: Swarm Removal today
« Reply #11 on: March 19, 2014, 11:14:39 am »
I know this is a late answer but.
I put the bees in a 6 frame box to get them settled into a hive.
The next day I combined the two hives with news paper sprayed with 1-1 sugar syrup with pro health.
They eat thru the paper by the next day.
I fed those bees all thru the winter and they were doing great.
In December I put a candy board on top of the box (inner cover)
February 16th it was 70 degrees F so I started them on 1-1 sugar syrup and protein patties.
The population was large.
March 10 then state bee inspector came and that was the first hive we opened.
They were gone, not a bee.
Plenty of feed and 4 frames of capped honey.
I'm still scratching my head on this.
Richard Vardaman (capt44)