5/4/2024
Things have been busy here so let me do a quick recap. On Friday, May 3rd, we, with our friend Brian, captured a swarm from a tree in Columbia and placed the capture box in its new hive. Later, at dusk, we went to our first Boone County trap is located and brought it back to the apiary.
What follows is the relocation of the swarm trap to the permanent hive.
We had a meeting at church first thing in the morning, so we weren’t able to get back to the apiary until mid-morning. The bees in the trap were more than ready to get out of the trap. I really didn’t know what to expect because the bees had only been in the trap a few day.
I open the trap and then realize I forgot the smoker and the small pry bar I use to pull out the frames.
After Linda brings me the pry bar and smoker progress gets made.
I can believe how much comb has been drawn out in so short of time.
The video version provides a better look.
The bees were not impressed with the 2 inch starter strip I had on the last few frames. These were frames setup last year and just put into service.
All the frames removed left an empty box with a few stragglers. I knew from their behavior that the queen was in the hive box, and it was just a matter of time before the stragglers found their new home.
Even though the bees didn’t like the starter strips, they certainly used it as a bridge to get into the hive.
Now it was time to checkup on the wild swarm.
I opened the box and was pleasantly surprised to see that overnight they had moved from the capture box and were on the frames that we left for them.
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