A Swarm in June...
We're over here!
A friend of ours rang us at dinnertime to say that her pride and joy queen, along with a good number of her foraging bees, from her one colony had decided that their present accomodation was a little cramped and despite the uncertainty in the housing market they were now on the look out for a desirable single storey residence. Thankfully they had not moved far from their old home and were temporarily settled underneath her bird table.
A closer look
Armed with all the necessary equipment we arrived to find a very sizeable prime swarm happily settled as previously described. The skep was primed with a little honey smeared inside and placed above them. A new brood box, containing foundation and a comb of mixed brood from the parent hive, was placed on a floor nearby and a sheet placed beneath the swarm leading to the entrance of the new hive.
The initial plan was to coax them up into the skep using a little smoke. However it was a large cluster (as you can see) and all the smoke seemed to do was spread them further across the underside of the bird table. So to plan B. Place the skep under the cluster and gently coax as many as possible by hand into it. After the first attempt the bees were knocked from the skep into the top of the new hive. Back for a second go which yielded a lot more of the cluster. These were again knocked into the new hive and low and behold the marked queen was seen amongst them. The roof was put on and the remaining bees now realising where the queen was began trooping into their new home.
Plan A
Plan B
In we go!
After twenty minutes or so most of the remaining bees from the cluster had joined the queen. They were given a feed and moved to their new permanent spot. The sheet was moved from under the bird table and placed at the front of the new hive as a marker for any stray bees which were still hanging around. Later that evening we got a call from a very contented beekeeper who was now sitting outside, with beer in hand, blissfully watching her bees at both hives happily going about their business.
