A Bungling beekeeper and some worrying wasps

The weather forecaster had warned us of a wet weekend and was characteristically wrong. This weekend was the hottest so far this year, though its competition has been wanting. My saturday morning dog walk was one of discoveries. I noticed a lot of wasps at the kids playhouse and on investigation found a wasp nest the size of a melon. Having set up a vespa exclusion zone I continued on the walk and decided to visit my apiary and check on the activity at my swarmed warré. The activity looked good and I feel good about the new queen's mating chances. Then I notice scout bee activity at the empty hives.  The scouts were coming and going quite rapidly and I was easily able to track them a big ball of bees in a hawthorn bush.

I ran back home and grabbed my kit and my assistant beekeeper Kyle.
The first job was to trim back the surrounding bush which was quite twisty and overgrown. It was at this time that I made a boo boo. I managed to cut the branch that the swarm had clustered on. The bees unceremoniously took to the air. Having realised my incompetence the bees decided they needed to make things a little easier for me and re-clustered on a stack of two bait hives. Initially they looked as though they were heading into the bottom box but 30 min later they had reformed on the top box.

Swarm clustered conveniently on a bait hive.

This time all I had to do was scoop them up in my hands and put them in the box. The bees didn't seem to mind at all, I'm not sure what it was like for them but for me it was very warm and tingley. I saw the queen and she was surprisingly small and completely black. I think this was a cast swarm from our poppy hive. The Queens from this hive we have decided to name after the flowers in bloom when they emerge. Having given a list of current flora to Kyle he decided the new Queen should be called "Dog rose". I am very proud :)

Queen Dog rose

As for the wasps I am afraid they met their demise in the evening. A bee suit can be used for evil as well as good!

My attempt at a video blog.

My photos and images backup automatically to google+. Occasionally it presents me with an "autoawesome" image. This is what it did with the swarm bits, a bit more dramatic than my attempt:

Something for Steve

I will get to the post heading in due time... maybe...

Pre-amble part one: First an update from last week.
Because I knew how much work I would have on this week (starting with a 13hr day on Sunday) I managed to wangle last Thursday off. As it happened summer decided to put in a showing and the weather was stunning. The children were at school my wife was busy and I had time to just sit next to the entrances of the hives without having to rush my beekeeping because we were going somewhere/doing something/seeing someone etc etc etc. I gave a brief summary here:
My Accidental Warre

[embed]https://youtu.be/BfjeGgIAqc4[/embed]

The Poppy Hive

[embed]https://youtu.be/ESxO2opNToQ[/embed]

As I say in the video I put some comb underneath attached by cable ties. This works extremely well when the bees do what they are supposed to. ie move down, clean the comb, connect it to the bar, queen lays in it... job done! However, on this occasion the bees filled that comb to brimming with nectar. The combination of all that weight and warmth of the bees caused the cable ties to tear through the comb and the comb to drop off of the bar. Bees are supposed to store above their brood, in fact the only time they don't is when they are backfilling their brood nest before ****SPOILER ALERT**** swarming. How strange that they did this... I wonder why. So I propped the comb up against the side of the box and left them to get on with reattaching.

Pre-amble part two: Some of you may remember me housing a hive for a friend Steve. Some of you may even remember these bees appeared to come out of winter strong. What you probably don't know is that the colony ultimately failed in March. On a hive post-mortem this appeared to be an issue with damp.

Wed 10/06/15:
ring ring....ring ring....ring ring( I am afraid this is shoddy attempt to convey my phone ringing even though phones rarely actually "ring" any more).

my wife: ummmm .. honey there are a lot of bees on the roof of the shed and flying round the garden.

me: how many bees, it is a swarm or just scouts around the bait hive.

my wife:  how should I know how many bees they won't stay still for me to count them. There's just a lot of bees and they're acting weird. I have of a friends of the school meeting in the back garden in an hour and people are bringing their children, is it safe.

me: Is what safe?

my wife: The Bees! They're acting weird, is it safe?

Finally getting to the point:
When I returned home there was indeed a meeting in my back garden and as it turns out "a lot of bees" means around 50, and "acting weird" means scouting behaviour. I checked all of my bait hives and every one had strong scouting activity. I therefore checked my warre hive. The hive definitely had less bees and on checking under the top box there were several capped queen cells. The swarm had obviously already left. By the time I got home the scouting had stopped and none of my bait hives had the swarm in them..... may be I had lost them :(

When I returned home this evening there was still no scouting on my shed bait hives but when I checked in my apiary....

[embed]https://youtu.be/T39d86ixkCs[/embed]
They had clearly decided that since the weather was so nice they would camp out under the stars for their first night out and move into their new house the nest day.

Usually warre bait hives are two boxes. I added the top box back to this hive because the old comb in it was getting far too much interest in my shed. The swarm must have been quite large to choose this as a home. Clearly they are bees of fine taste choosing Steve's warre as they did. Well done sneaky bees and may Mata Hari continue to rule you well.

The Ponderings' of Bernhard

Little has been happening in my apiary of late. As I have said before it seems that swarming doesn't turn up until June so I have the next month to look forward to. Meanwhile the bees are building up nicely. As a stop-gap for posting I have decided I need to give you something to be getting on with. Here is an article produced by Bernhard Heuvel. A prolific contributor to the biobees forum and a man who has an intimate knowledge and understanding of his bees. Bernhard is based in Germany and although he has a few hive types he has a large number of Warré hives and these are the hives Bernhard provides the most support for on the forum. I am posting here (with Bernhard's permission) an article he provided to me last year. I have reproduced it below word for word. I have struggled a little taking it from pdf into wordpress so there maybe a few format changes from the original.

To Bernhard, Thank you.
To everyone else, Enjoy!

___________________

Local modifications and adaptions for Warré-beekeeping

Bernhard Heuvel

Initial thoughtsThe Warré bee hive by the French Abbé ELOI FRANÇOIS ÉMILE WARRÉ – called by himself the PEOPLE'S HIVE – got very popular nowadays. That hive is very economical and practical – and also supports the more natural approach of beekeeping. The Warré-bee hive is a box hive – which is why it is able to adapt to many local situations, needs and necessities. The capability to adapt is the reason, why box hives in general are popular all over the World. The 'frameless box hive' – the Warré hive – seems to gain similar popularity today. It is in use throughout North and South America, from Alaska to Brazil. Beekeepers from Europe, Africa, Indonesia, Asia and Australia report keeping bees happily in the Warré hive.

Thus the life's work of ÉMILE WARRÉ – Beekeeping for All – receives appreciation and his vision of a PEOPLE'S HIVE comes true. But even ÉMILE WARRÉ himself points out the dependency of success on local contexts:

»The truth – No type of hive, no method of beekeeping turns stones into honey.Neither do they make the beekeeper any wiser, or increase queen fertility or improve the ambient temperature. As a result the yield of a hive varies from one region to another, from one hive to another and from one year to another, just as does the nectar wealth of the region, queen fertility, temperature and the skill of the beekeeper.« 1

WARRÉ distinguishes here between hive and method. The methods the Warré-hive is used with are various today. And that is a good thing. Because adaptions and modifications of the hive and method is beneficial not just for the beekeeper, but for the bees as well.
»All beekeeping is local.« 2

WARRÉ worked with splits and the heroic method under his local circumstances: Under today’s circumstances the use of the heroic method without doubt is becoming a necessity, to gain a profit/harvest.« 3

Time for modifications!

The classic method of WARRÉ is based of a timely nadiring of the hives with boxes in Spring. The bees are left alone throughout the season until harvest in autumn 4. Swarms are not prevented. This system is not successful under all circumstances as even Warré admits. About 85 % of feral swarms die before or in the first winter, which has been found by Seeley and Morse – even in times preceding the occurrence of varroa. In addition the classic system is based on the vitality of the bees and on a flora rich in nectar throughout the season. The citation above of WARRÉ on the necessity to use the heroic method shows, that he already noticed the changing environmental conditions. In place of a many small nectar flows of wild groves, shrubs and herbs there are mass nectar flows with long times of dearths between. This is a real challenge for both beekeepers and bees.

The heroic method on the other hand really is 'heroic', because it is „gamely“ and risky. It fits the modern concept of removing all brood during the season to treat against varroa mites. The removal of brood and combs cuts back varroa population dynamics. Often combined with a chemical treatment or essential oils.

»The brood retains in the hive many bees that could otherwise go foraging. 5.

This logic is appropriate – but local circumstances do not always allow the use of the heroic method. For example: in our region there mainly is a Spring and a early summer flow. Just before the hives recovered from being broodless – a worker bee needs 40 days to develop from an egg to a forager – the main nectar flow is over. With the flow the chance to collect amounts of honey worth mentioning is gone. As a consequence it is even necessary to feed sugar to get the hives through winter. Just like the removal of brood, a swarm diminishes the foraging of honey.

»If they lack space, they swarm. As a result, the honey harvest is reduced.« 6

You just need to let the hives swarm to verify the significant reduction of honey yields by swarming. Not only that the minimum harvest of about 15 kilogram isn't reached – also you give up harvest altogether and you have to feed.

Some bee-ology

In fixed comb hives I observed differences in the building ability of prime swarms and casts. Prime swarms have old queens and casts young queens. It is widely accepted, that a prime swarms fills a hive with combs fasted – even without any feeding. The bees of a prime swarm simply want to build. The prime swarms clusters in the center of the ceiling and the combs build look very appealing. That's different in a cast swarm, which often starts building combs from the sides of the hive and does look some sort of 'lost' in the hive. The cast does need feeding or it will most probably not survive the winter. I therefore conclude (and may be wrong, of course), that there is a division of tasks: the prime swarm fulfills the tasks to occupy empty cavities and build a proper brood nest, while the casts with the young queens occupy already build nests. Be it the combs of the mother hive or the combs of a vacant hive/cavity. In the case the cast doesn't find such a nest, it is doomed. That may explain the high losses of feral swarms in the study mentioned above. For the development of a system or method in fixed comb hives I therefore deduce that prime swarms should be used to build brood nests, while casts have to be put on already drawn combs. At least you can't do anything wrong by following this principle.

Swarm beekeeping and reproduction

A dividing colony that swarms, moves off with the old queen and a huge part of worker bees, presumably to build a new brood nest in an empty cavity. Some brood, a lot of nectar as reserve and unmated queens are left behind. The young queens need time to get mated and lay eggs. The division of the colony implies a cut in numbers of worker bees – which affects the completion of tasks in the hive – for example cleaning or foraging. The prime swarm on the other hand first needs to draw comb before the queen is able to lay eggs and combs are also needed to store honey into. A worker bee needs 40 days to develop from an egg into a forager. Both – prime swarm and cast do reach a comparable colony size to the initial size way beyond the main nectar flows. When it is too late to store sufficient amounts of honey. This fact constricts swarm beekeeping to locations with a late main nectar flow – as in the heathland of Germany. To make use of the main flow in May and June, most beekeeper try to prevent swarming. Conventional beekeepers generally achieve this by timely supering, 'bleeding' (remove young bees and brood here and there) and breaking queen cells. WARRÉ used the heroic method and splits with whole boxes.

All swarm preventing methods share the common objective to prevent swarming, thus the reduction of the colony's size. When splitting hives or bleeding or other methods, the colony still gets weakened. To weak a hive while you want to prevent the weakening seems pretty questionable. Quite often the bees do swarm anyway, because the artificial weakening was too little. On the other hand the bees do not bring in much honey, in case they got weakened/bled too much. It also seems questionable to break queen cells – just before starting queen breeding afterwards.

Preventing swarms just before artificially splitting the hives. Push brood rearing through manipulations just before culling out all brood for varroa treatment.It seems, that a colony potentially suffers from being torned to and from. The goal of beekeeping is, to provide a colony with numerous workers at the right time: the main nectar flow. To harvest honey, create young fresh colonies for next year and cut back the varroa mite population dynamics a little. Below it is attempted to develop a method using Warré hives to approach the above stated goals – utilizing methods of swarm beekeeping (Demeter beekeeping, skep beekeeping), and box hive beekeeping method of the German most famous beekeeper KARL PFEFFERLE. 7 At the beginning of this text it was called for being open for adaptions – which is why the below approach is just one of many modifications possible. You have to find your way in your place in the end. But maybe this description helps you to find your own system. You need a system as you need a hive – but don't simply copy it. It can not be copied, because – you remember – all beekeeping is local.

Steps to success

1 Initial situation after wintering.

After the hives have been wintered successfully – so in early spring, the bees didn't eat up much of the stores. In spring the bees use most of the stores, which get turned into brood then. In early spring you find – if wintered on two boxes – usually one box with more or less honey and another box with more or less brood in it.

Initial situation

2 Stimulation of brood rearing.

As already stressed, a bee needs 40 days to develop into a forager. If a huge amount of workers during the first strong nectar flow (plums, cherries, apple) is to be achieved, the brood rearing has to be stimulated timely. KARL PFEFFERLE recommends a simple method during the first strong pollen flights. 8 He takes out the central two honey combs and lightly scribes them open. Just a bit. The bees start to relocate the honey around the brood nest. PFEFFERLE states that there are hidden protein reserves in the comb. The emptied cells soon get occupied by brood and the bees move up into the honey cap. PFEFFERLE:

»Everywhere, where bees „reach out“ of the broodnest, they find open food and get the impression of floating in enormous amounts of food. That inspires their expansion and development.«

WARRÉ writes about splits:

»If you do this at the beginning of the main nectar flow, and if, in autumn, you left only the necessary stores only in box No. 1 [topmost box], there will certainly be brood with which the bees will raise a new queen.« 9

WARRÉ, too, speaks about two hive boxes with brood at this time of year. But that is not always the case – in opposite the bees more often seem to struggle to keep pace with spring. The stimulation used by PFEFFERLE may help to let the bees move up into the honey cap and brood throughout two boxes. This is necessary to achieve the needed numbers of bees in May. A Warré sized comb has about 4.000 cells – thus per hive box 32,000 potential brood cells (maximum). Two hive boxes are needed in order to build up a colony of 40,000 worker bees and more. Because bees do hatch in a time cascade.

Stimulation by scribing two honey combs in early spring.

Indicator: First strong pollen collection. 40 days before expected first main flow.

3 Stimulation of swarming and building comb.

At the very latest during dandelion blossoming the bees start drawing comb – and need space to do so. In the box hive beekeeping method after PFEFFERLE the upwards movement of the brood nest is continued by supering and giving frames with foundations within already full frames. Because I want to produce swarms I let the bees hit the ceiling and backfill with nectar. To give them at least some space to build, I nadir one box in the first step.

Nadiring an empty box.

Indicator: Dandelion is blossoming.

This hive box later contains some combs which can be used as seed combs for swarms. The nadiring can be left out as suggested by PFEFFERLE and supered instead, which will produce even larger colonies.

 4 First strong flow.

The first super is put on in the first strong flow, which is usually cherry trees, so this box gets drawn out and eventually filled with honey. At this time of year there are about 1,000 bees hatching per day – those bees need something to do. Building combs and later foraging are very good tasks.

Supering a honey box.

Indicator: Cherries are blossoming.

5 Swarming and making use of swarms.

Starting with the first strong flows and the daily increase of worker numbers the first

queen cells get drawn and cared for. It doesn't take long until first drones can be seen inside and outside the hive. Swarming can't be too far away then. Once temperatures do not drop below 10°C during the night, swarms can be expected.

The prime swarm has to be catched. This you can do in various ways. You either use bait hives, swarm traps mounted at the hive entrances or you simply pluck the swarm of a tree. (If you have the time to do so...).

Different on what WARRÉ recommends, the prime swarm should not (!) be brought away from the apiary. The prime swarm – which is most eagerly to draw comb – receives two empty hive boxes, and another two honey boxes on top. The one honeybox is the honeybox of the hive that just swarmed. It contains fresh honey – the bees are willing to fill that other box, too. The prime swarm is put into the place of the hive that swarmed. This way the foragers are combined with the prime swarm which makes a strong colony. Strong, broodless and willing to build and collect. Similar to the heroic method – just less heroic. The hive with the prime swarm is eager to forage. This way the main nectar flow can be fully used by the bees.

Prime swarm at the old location. Brood boxes are split and used as nucs.

The brood boxes of the swarmed hive are splitted and the queen cells divided into the two boxes. The boxes are put into another place. If there is brood only in one box, the one box will be put into another place. Foragers of the split will return to the prime swarm, resulting in small colonies that won't swarm and swarm. The young queens get mated and until the end of summer the colonies grow into full sized young colonies, ready for next season.

A variation is the twin-hive system. Simply put an empty box above a queen excluder onto the two splits, thus combining the hives through the top. The hives communicate through that topbox and even out themselves, sharing the workforce. That helps both colonies.

Twin hive system with the two splits.

Indicator: Apple and horse chestnut blossoming.

This way the young colonies/splits may collect their own honey for wintering. Being broodless for some time there is a chance to treat against varroa mites.

6 Use of nectar flows and harvests.

Honey is harvested once cells of the honey combs in the topboxes are capped. Bee escapes are used to get the bees out. In localities with early nectar flows only, the use of a queen excluder between honey boxes and brood boxes should be considered, because it is the only chance to make a harvest. And to not need to feed to winter the hives.

Supering, Nadiring, Harvesting

Indicator: Raspberries, blackberries, locust tree, lime tree

Once the young queens lay eggs and first brood hatches, the splits should be nadired. Boxes with fully drawn comb preferred, but empty boxes do as well.

 7 Getting ready for winter.

If the nadired boxes of the splits do not contain comb, the splits get combined and feeded to get ready for winter. Honey boxes get harvested and the colonies feeded until the topmost box of every hive is full of honey. The hive with the old queen gets reduced or the bees combined with the splits.

Ready for winter

Final words

I hope that the above thoughts illustrate my trials to adapt to our locality, a region with mainly spring nectar flows and a long summer dearth. I think it is necessary to differentiate between the hive and method/system, and to develop your own system. That is adapted to your locality. Being advantageous not only for you, but for the bees, too. Wintering hives in one box, feeding sugar every year, excessive swarming of hives that just build one or two boxes, no harvests – that is not necessary.

There are times when well-trodden trails have to be left and new ways to be explored. The Warré hive itself is enormously flexible and adaptable. It provides an excellent potential to keep bees the simple and productive way – by all of us. Just what Warré intended. I finish this text with his wish:

»Mella fluunt tibi.«

1 Abbé Emile Warré: Beekeeping for All. Page 3. david (at) dheaf.plus.com
2 Michael Bush: The Practical Beekeeper Volume II. ISBN: 978-1-61476-062-7, Pages 269-270
3 Abbé Emile Warré: Beekeeping for All. This cite is missing in the English translation.
4 Page 120
5 Page 94
6 Page 88
7 Karl Pfefferle: Imkern mit dem Magazin und mit der Varroatose. (book)
8 Karl Pfefferle: Imkern mit dem Magazin und mit der Varroatose. Page 35 ff. (book.)
9 Page 146

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This article was published with the permission of the author Bernhard Heuvel who retains full rights and permissions to this work.

The Student becomes the Master

Last year I managed to interest my dad in the way of the bees.
Having kindly produced some new warré boxes for me I sent my dad back with a top bar bait hive to try out on the roof of his shed. lo and behold within a few days some bees turned up. These bees were passed on to a natural beekeeper in his area (250 miles to my apiary was a little too far).
This year he decided to knock himself up some warré boxes and put them on the roof of his shed to try his luck again. Following weeks of telephone conversations asking me about entrance sizes, lure types and amounts, the direction the hive should face and updates on "interest" from honey bees in the area this happened.

They moved in last monday just after my parents returned home from a weekend visit to me in Yorkshire. They look to be the same bee strain he caught last year so may well be from the same apiary and from the look of things almost certainly a prime swarm. It is still a little early for swarms in my area so I am in all honesty a little jealous. He is currently trying to decide how much management he would like to perform. He is considering running this as more of conservation hive but for the time being is just enjoying watching them fly.

Laying Workers: The Why, How, and Now what!

I have tinkering with this post on and off now for some months and cannot get it right. It just seems very meanderng and inconcise. Perhaps it's the "man-flu" speaking but I had enough of it. You can deal with it now.
From time to time a beekeeper will be faced with the question of whether or not a hive is queenless and ultimately do you have a laying worker. It can be difficult to tell the difference between a laying worker and a drone laying queen but generally your options are the same. Often these concerns are as a result of the colony swarming but occasionally a colony can suffer from "queen failure" or the queen can be lost or injured during an inspection (naughty beekeeper!).
When triggered by swarming, if you haven't seen the swarm leave hopefully you have at least seen queen cells. Sadly, even the most beautiful of queen cells can end in tragedy with the queen not returning or bad weather affecting mating. In the short term you will notice an increase in stores of honey and pollen as the bees with no/less brood to look after turn their attentions to foraging. You may well panic in this period as the amount of drone brood appears to increase, it probably hasn't. It could simply be due to the longer period of time it takes for any drones laid by the old queen to emerge. After all the worker brood has emerged there may well still be drone brood waiting around appearing as though it has increased because you notice it more.
Do not be in a rush! The quickest you can expect to have a laying queen from the point the swarm leaves is two weeks.
It can certainly take longer and if you keep disturbing them it is not helpful. Two week inspections should be sufficient.
Obviously the best test of whether a queen is present is to see her. However, not all of us have a good queen eye and often young queens are a little thinner and harder to spot. The next best thing is eggs. Occassionally, a new queen may lay more than one egg per cell to start with but she soons gets the hang of things. Many eggs laid haphazardly and even in cells containing pollen is a good sign of a laying worker.


The multiple eggs per cell seen when laying worker(s) are present.

Laying workers will also lay their eggs to the sides of a cell instead of in the bottom middle as their abdomens are shorter. This isn't always obvious to the new beeks eye so don't rely on it.
If you don't see the multiple eggs then often the way the capped brood is arranged can offer a clue.

Drone laying queen brood pattern. Domed brood in worker cell.

Again, laying workers are haphazard leaving large patches. Drone laying Queens give a better pattern but the cappings will be domed as in drone brood but laid in worker cells.
When queenless the bees do behave and sound very differently to how things are with a queen about. Over time working with bees with even realising it you will have developed an ear for the tone of a working hive. You probably won't even realise you know what it should sound like until it sounds....wrong! Rather than the many toned buzzing of a hive on task the buzz becomes low and monotonous. The bees themselves appear listless and easily provoked to sting.
Now what!
Well it really depends on the type of beekeeping you aspire to.
If you have laying workers that needs sorting first. There are two ways I know of to "deal" with laying workers. Fast and dirty, or slow and surely.
F&D
I have not done this but many swear by it. Shake out all the bees 100yds or so away from the hive. The idea is laying workers (having never left the hive) will not know their way back. Any foragers will be able to return since they recognise the area. Do this at a busy time of the day so the laying workers will be challenged should they attempt to enter another hive. Then try a queen fix below.
 S&S It is important to note that laying workers are NOT the result of absence of a queen, but the absence of brood. A subtle difference I know, but an important one. If a colony shows signs of laying workers weekly brood transfers from another hive... assuming you have one... will over time suppress the laying workers. Three or four weeks should see the colony building queen cups with the best of them.

New queen:
This is a relatively quick fix.... if you have spare queen. The queen will have to be properly introduced because even when queenless the colony will kill off a poorly introduced queen. If you have laying workers you must deal with them first as they will also kill a queen.
Combine:
If the colony is queenless you combine it with another... assuming you have one. This could be done with a newspaper combine for vertical hives, or using icing sugar to coat the introduced combs and bees in a kTBH.
Brood transfer:
Transfering young uncapped brood ...assuming you have some... will allow the colony raise a new queen. Take care they don't produce too many and swarm.

By the this time you may have noticed two things:
1 - Transfering young brood into the colony from another will fix the problem of laying workers AND queenlessness. It will even help you post swarm. Adding brood can stimulate a new well-mated queen to lay, and provides the colony with opportunities to replace her if poorly mated. It also stops you from having to bite your fingernails trying decide what, if anything, is wrong.
2 - If you only have one colony you're stuffed. The curse of the new beekeeper is that at a time when you need the most resource and have the least experience the reality is opposite. So, join forums, find mentors and seek out supportive associations.
There is always the option with your to allow 'nature to take its course'. I can certainly get on board with that philosophy and at times have applied. All I will say is that be wary of generating unnatural circumstances and leaving nature to sort it out. Sometimes she'll be able to sort it out on her own but don't count on it. Make sure for any manipulation you perform on your hive you are clear on:
a) What you want/expect to achieve (over and above not doing it).
b) You have considered what might happen if it doesn't work.
c) You have fall back plan and know what you want to do and how to do it.



Freebees

Well in the UK it is approaching that time of year when colonies may swarm. This starts in earnest in April and can continue until the end of July. In my area June is the month where it all happens. Swarms are the natural reproductive unit of a colony and are ready, willing, and able to develop a new colony. I will not discuss here the biology of a swarm only how to catch them!
Every year there is post after post of different forums about how to catch yourself a swarm so I thought I would save my keyboard the wear and tear and put it in one place.
Swarm trap or bait hive.
A minor distinction but for me a bait hive is a small hive that can function as such. A swarm trap will give the swarm a temporary location but quickly needs moving to a hive. Any move you make of a swarm prior to brood being present may lead to them absconding. Where possible I recommend using a bait hive. If you have empty hives it is all worth baiting them for swarms just in case.

 

Flower pot bait hive on the roof of Brinscall hall.

Warré style - two warré boxes with the bars not in the bottom box. I recommend a flat roof for ease of movement. You must be sure the floor, boxes, and roof stay together so clips and/or reliable hive straps are a must.
National style - a single brood box is sufficent again with a simple roof and all components well secured.
TBH style - This is much easier equipment wise as any container that will recieve approx. 8-12 topbars can be a perfectly good bait hive. I have made these from polystyrene shipping boxes and plant pots. The fact that the top bars can be removed and placed in a hive with the bees in-situ is very handy. I would say that it doesn't take much longer to make a bait hive that works well as a nucleus hive for splits, transport, or mating. Do NOT forget if you intend to leave the bees in there for more than a week to have a follower board or spacer bar so you can still manipulate the bars.

15 bar Topbar bait hive/nuc made from old shipping pallets.

So to the matter at hand, the attracting of a swarm of bees. I will list below, categorised of course, elements which increase your chances of catching a swarm. Ultimately if there are more swarms than containers to house them then you'll will them is nearly anything.
Size
20-40 litres in volume. This is two warré boxes, one national or langstroth brood, 8-12 bars kTBH. Prime swarms will want more space than cast swarms. I have had a cast swarm enter a single warré box (~18 l) that wasn't even nailed together properly.
Placement
I believe 2 metres from the ground is ideal in a location where there is a supply or nectar, water, and propolis. In reality a height you can comfortably reach is MUCH more sensible. It is useful having the bait hive higher eg shed roof, but more so that no one can inadvertently walk into the bees flight path. You will need to have the permission of the land owner and prepare to loose the odd piece of equipment to thieves. I would also suggest it isn't to far from a road. If you think the bait hive it heavy now wait until it's full of unsettled bees!
Entrance
The bees do not care what shape their entrance is. Through experimentation I have found a single entrance with 1 inch diameter works very well. Anything bigger becomes difficult to defend, anything smaller inconvenient. If you wish then you can fit a mesh floor so the bees don't overheat in transport but this must be covered over to attract a swarm in. The darker the better, oddly damp doesn't bother them. The entrance should face south or southest (ish). It is not essential for direction but make sure there isn't a strong wind blowing into the entrance.
Attractant
There are lots of commercially available swarms attractant but they really aren't that necessary. If the box has had bees in before ie coated with propolis etc and smells of bees then this is enough for then. Other things that help are a piece of old brood comb (the darker the better) and a few drops of lemon grass oil (LGO) at the entrance. Use sparingly as too much LGO can put them off. Two drops once every two weeks in more then enough. You can also put some on cotton wool in a zip lock plastic bag left bearly open inside the hive. It is not as good as old brood comb and propolis but as a new beekeeper you won't have that. It that case rub the inside walls of the hive with beeswax too.
Now just wait...... if you can take a look during the day then it is fun to see scout bee interest increasing. If not then a sharp knock in the evening or checking its weight will tell you if you have new tenants. Do not open it until you're sure they have moved in. If you disturb scout bees they're unlikely to return.
If you're lucky enough to see the swarm arrive it is very exciting. Finding bees already there is a close second. It's something like a cross between catching a fish and opening a present. Best of luck!

Accidental Warré Update

Over a bank holiday weekend where Yorkshire hosted an amazing first Tour de Yorkshire bike race (woo... go Wiggins), my daughter got scarlet fever, and I failed to get anything done other than eat and drink. I did get the chance to visit the bees on a small respite from the rain.

So last year in June a tiny caste swarm moved into an old box in my apiary. The box is deralict with the side not meeting properly and more hole than the proverbial sieve. This swarm was very small and although it managed to just about fill the box did nothing more that year. They refused to grow into the a box below deciding instead to stay put. I at least gave them a decent quilt and roof and offered them my best wishes. Against all odds they managed to make it through (an albeit mild) Yorkshire winter which managed to be the downfall of larger colonies. This a brief video of them:

Good work little bees!

When wondering what to do with wax

Any natural beekeeper practising a crush and strain approach to honey harvest,  any who have removed warped combs, or just downsized for winter by removing empty comb, will at some point find themselves with something of an abundance of wax.

Annoyingly, when I was starting out last year wax was something I coveted only slightly less than bees. Wax enabled me to weatherproof my hive (by mixing with linseed oil), to rub around the inside of the hive to make a more attractive home to the bees, to
embed upon the comb guides to aid in straight comb. All of this I could buy but what I wanted more than anything was some old comb to include in bait hives.  Old brood comb above all other things (including queen pheromone) is most successful in attracting a swarm.

Looking back on this shortage is a little odd now I have wax coming out of my ears (apologies a poorly chosen euphemism *yuck*). I harvested a relatively modest amount of wax this year in reducing the hives for winter (about 15 combs in all).

First I tried just melting it all in a saucepan of water. I do not suggest using your best saucepans! Anything you use to prepare wax should be something that you never want to use again for anything else... ever.. I also used a camping stove so as not to ruin the range cooker. Once melted pour the contents through a sieve (that you never want to use again for anything else) or some cheese cloth. Anything that will filter out the particulates.

For a few combs this works just fine. As the wax cools it floats to the top with any remaining rubbish on the bottom. Bigger projects however require bigger thinking.
If working with wax is something you're interested in there are plenty of plans on the Internet for wax extraction in solar and steam (using wallpaper steamers) extractors. Here is my home-made attempt at a steam wax extractor using a packing box and a wallpaper stripper. It worked surprisingly well and cost nothing beyond what I already had.

Next year I intend to build an extraction hive I can put the combs in and attach the steamer to. Once you have your wax it's fun time. I am by no means an expert like Judy Earl (as reported on Emily Scott's blog) but have really enjoyed tinkering.

My first wax product attempt was a basic lip balm.
1 tablespoon of wax
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (so it would be green).
1 teaspoon of honey
5 drops of peppermint oil.

It was a little experiment using things i already had. I mixed them together in and old (but cleaned out) sauce jar in a saucepan of water on the hob. I was quite pleased with the outcome, as were many of my work colleagues who got a free gift the next day. My wife however was ridiculously excited. The next day I came home to an ebay bill for the following products.

Six different essential oils, cocoa butter, jars of different sizes, borax (tut tut), three different carrier oils (?), a kindle book of bee products. Beekeeping has thus far failed to interest my wife in any way. The making of home-made cosmetics however...that she could get on board with.

Next up. My wife wanted to make a body butter (I don't really know what this is). We found a recipe, pinterest appears to be a huge resource for this, and set to work. The recipe called for water and borax to be added. As a biochemist I recognise water as a possible source of bacterial contamination and borax as something you use to scrub your steps. The borax is probably to emulsify the oil and water allowing them to mix. I wasn't too happy with this so thought of a different way. So was born the 'Lavender and Vodka Body Butter'. I am told it works well, though for what I am still unsure :)

Taking this another step I thought a lighter lip balm could be approached the same way. Behold the resulting Sloe gin lip balm.

This is:
1 tablespoon wax
3 tablespoons oil (in this case white grape oil but olive is fine)
1 tablespoon sloe gin.
This mix requires whisking as it cools (I used 2x bamboo skews). This made 4x 5ml pots and apparently is more of a lip gloss! Who knew!

We have also managed to make a sleep balm, containing oils from lavender, chamomile, valerian, bergamot, and orange.

To be honest whilst making it the smell was so powerful as to be nausea inducing. The following day when the mists had cleared and the wax had set the smell was much more pleasant.

For a beekeeper the winter is a time of fretting and carpentry. Both could well be aided by some well worked wax.