Sprung has Springed

This last week has treated us to a little sunshine and all of a sudden the world is coming back to life.  I was extremely lucky to have booked the time off of work and feel very smug as a result. The week was spent with family, on the beach, visiting seal colonies nearby, fossil hunting, and celebrating my birthday.

My daughter also finally got to do her "zookeeper for a day" Christmas present and even got to hand feed owlets, wallabies, and meerkats.

As I have said all three of my colonies made it though winter and on brief inspection have a small amount of brood. The top bar hive is by far the strongest and even has some winter stores left over at the tops of a few combs.

Since I felt my sap rising too I jumped on the impulse and got my bait hives out ready. This is in spite of fact that I never see a swarm before June :s To be fair this is mostly because I just concentrate of my village area. This is to try and catch any of my swarms along with any local survivor stock. Here is recent post on how. I have also baited up all my empty hives in the apiary as.... well... why not! I want to let my colonies swarm with some degree of regularity as I believe it to be an important process both for the bees and in varroa control. I will attempt to minimize swarming through nest expansion but if I miss the boat and the urge takes them who am I to know better. I may make splits using the swarmed colony if it is large enough but otherwise I will not intervene unless there is queenlessness.  I am lucky that I live sufficiently rural that I can get away with this malarkey, but I put bait hives at different distances in my village to minimize the bees upsetting anyone. It does annoy me a little that a hive swarming is treated as such a terrible thing in beekeeping now when I instinctively feel as though it should be celebrated.

Warré baited up for swarms. Just two of the four boxes.

As well as bait hives of my own I have lent our local vicar two warré bait hives. Joe is very excited to be giving natural beekeeping a try and currently supports nine churches. That is nine churchyards that may well be hearing the buzzing of bees in the not too distant future.
I will publish a short video in the not too distant future of how I set one up.

In other news over winter I have contributed to the YBKA newsletter (March edition). This is the monthly publication of

Newsletter link

the Yorkshire Beekeeping Association and had a new editor who wanted to capture some different beekeeping practices.

I will also be hosting my association in my apiary for a Top bar hive training session on 21st May, so fingers crossed I have something to show them.

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:

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.

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!

The Sins of the Son visited upon the Father

As you may or may not know this weekend another swarm arrived.
As you may or may not know my parents were visiting and witnessed the spectical.
As you almost certainly do not know my father was intrigued by the event. So much so he 'borrowed' one of my bait hives to put on his shed roof to see if anything happened. He placed the bait hive on monday, come wednesday and he has bees! This year is clearly a very good year.
I am told there is lots of entrance activity and pollen going in so this could well be a prime swarm. He has asked if I can find someone who would like them in the area. Anyone in East London/Essex want some bees :)

Look who's come to visit

I was heading into the vegetable garden and what should I see but a swarm taking up residence in the bait hive on my roof. I still haven't witnessed a swarm in the air, or clustered on a branch but this was still very cool. To see so many bees clustered to the front of the box and in the air one minute. Then the next minute they'll all in the box.  They really didn't look like they should fit.

 My parents were visiting this weekend and I took my dad to Cropton Brewery (also called the Great Yorkshire Brewery). As such these shall be the brewery bees presided over by The Hop Queen.

Worst Beekeeper Ever!

Laying in bed last night reflecting on the evening and feeling more than a little sore from the events my wife mumbled sleepily to me ".. you shouldn't do beekeeping in a hurry...*snore*". I had to admit she was right (please don't tell her), if you don't have time to dedicate to complete a task, however it pans out, leave it for another day.

Remember the swarm trap that was occupied on Sunday?

I thought there weren't many bees in there. "Probably a small cast swarm...", "probably a queen cell I missed in my own hive....", was what I told my wife. Well.... I was wrong. There were a LOT of bees in that box, and they reeeeeaaalllly didn't like me!

Here was my evening (numbered list of mistakes below):
I decided I had a little spare time so thought I would collect the bait hive 1. This is the location I had a full bait hive stolen from in May so I didn't want to leave it there too long. It is a little remote and only accessible along a farm track on foot or by bike. So I cycled out to the bait hive in my bee suit 2. It felt good cycling out there as this is where I collected my first swarm last year when I "became" a beekeeper. I had moved another full bait hive the night before with no trouble at all. They were quiet as lambs and although I had lit my smoker just in case I didn't need it so felt a little silly. So this evening I didn't bring a smoker with me 3. I thought I could maybe put the bait hive on my bike seat and wheel the bike to the apiary location but that wasn't going to work. So just like last year I corked up the entrance 4. and carried them the 3/4 of mile to the apiary. Remember I am wearing the beesuit, though not done up it was still rather warm 2. This should have been my first clue as to just how many bees were in there because it was very heavy. By the time I reached the apiary I was hot, sweating, and aching 2. I left the bait hive at the hive site to settle whilst I jogged back to the bait hive site and collected my bike, to cycle back to the apiary 2. 2. 2.

Buoyed on by the ease of the previous evening's transfer I decided to move the bees into their new hive 3. 5. BAD IDEA! From the second I took out the first bar 6. things were not good. The size of the colony meant they were comb building on all 9 bars of the bait hive having only been in there 1 1/2 days. So removing the end bar disrupted the cluster and must have rolled some bees against one another.... they did not like this. They boiled out of the bait hive making a noise like water hitting a hot skillet. All I had with me was a water mister spray with some peppermint oil in it. I was quickly covered in bees who were ready, willing, and able to show there displeasure for the treatment they had received that evening. I misted the air liberally in order to discourage the flying bees and hopefully mask the alert pheromones with the peppermint oil. They were having none of it. A group had rallied together on my arm and were tunneling up my gauntlet stinging as they went. A few had managed to master velcro and had gained access to the zip at my neck and found a sweet spot at my throat for stinging. Having got all the bars roughly in place I beat a hasty retreat to regroup. I grabbed my bike and cycled home shedding angry bees into the wind on the way, there I grabbed my smoker 3. and got it lit before heading back to the fray.  I managed to get the majority of bees into the hive without much more fuss, the evening was cooling and having already moved the bars the cluster was intact and in the hive. There were still a few hundred bees on the bait hive walls which I was not going to try and brush or bang out. I put the bait hive on its side in front of the hive. The bees still in the bait hive will have to overnight there and move into the new hive in the morning when there sisters show them the way. I returned home aching of muscle, skin, and pride and soaked in sweat and shame. I fell into bed with a greeting of "...what took you so long?" from my wife. Having described my evening she imparted her sleepy wisdom only to leave me awake and thinking of all my mistakes... oh, and I forgot to put the bins out!

1. Never try and "fit something in". Have the time or don't do it.
2. Take your bee suit in a bag. It may be easier to wear it rather than carry it but on an evening where it is 17oC with high humidity you will sweat, and bees do not like it.
3. Never assume just because one lot of bees is calm one evening, another will be the next. Every colony is different. Over-prepare, it is better to feel a little silly than a lot sore.
4. Although this bait hive does have vent holes drilled in the side it would have been better considering the heat and humidity if I had placed mesh over the entrance instead.
5. These bees should have been left to settle in the new location for a day or so before attempting to move them into the hive. Placing the bait hive so the entrance is in front of the new hive entrance means that when you perform the transfer any bees oriented to that location will return to find the new entrance in the same location. By putting some grass in the bait hive's entrance it also prompts the bees to reorient.
6. There were no spacers at the end of the bait hive so all bars were for comb building. This isn't usually a big deal as it takes a colony a while before they have built across 9 bars. It is better though to leave a spacer bar at each end (~5-10mm) so you have access to each end without having to remove a comb building bar and disturbing the bees.