Swarm

The local beekeeping group I recently joined has an online message board, and last night a fellow beekeeper posted to the board that there was a swarm in someone's yard out near Hope, IN. This is only about 20 minutes from my house, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to take some equipment out there and at least take a look at it. If it was too large, or too aggressive for me to handle, I could just walk away, and provide others with more details on the swarm, so if someone else wanted to retrieve it, at least they would have a couple pictures and more information.

This is the first swarm I can recall seeing in person, and up close, so I don't have any comparison, but it was relatively small, and very close to the ground. The homeowner informed me that in the evenings, the swarm's size would increase to the point that it was touching the ground at times, so I can only assume a lot of bees were out foraging. He also explained that the swarm had been there for more than a week, so I suspect the bees were probably very hungry. The last several days the weather has been overcast and sprinkling at times, and I can only assume that's why the bees hadn't moved on to another location (usually a swarm only stays put for a day or two).

At the moment, my only extra bee boxes are supers, so I filled one with foundation frames (normally, my supers would only each have 9 frames, but this one has 10) and set it down inside a cardboard box that was slightly larger in area and more than twice as tall as the super. I made sure the bottom of the box was well sealed, and it was a heavy duty box so I was pretty confident it would hold up well. Just in case the branch was too big, I also brought along a larger rubbermaid box to drop the branch into. Before going out to the site, I imagined it would be a lot bigger. I didn't have any snippers or anything, but I also brought along a hand saw, in case I needed it.

The homeowner was very nice, and very helpful. When I got there, after putting my veil on, I lifted up the branch, slid the box under, and with his larger clippers, just clipped the end off the branch. I waited a bit to see if anymore bees would settle into the box, but after a call to my Dad, and some small talk with the homeowner about bees and their habits, I decided to seal up the box and call it good enough.

Here's a picture of the box before I taped it up:

Once home, I dismantled my old, empty package, and placed a couple smaller pieces of wood onto a piece of plywood close to where I wanted the hive to eventually rest. These small pieces of wood are acting as shims to give them an entrance at the bottom of the hive. I got a feeder jar and another empty super ready, along with my smoker, and got to it. I cut down the side of the box on two corners, with bees sneaking out on both sides, and then cut the tape open and slowly slide the super out and placed it on the temporary bottom board. I put their feeder jar on top of the frames, next to the branch, and shook the branch some to get at least some of the bees down into the box, and put the empty super down over the jar and branch. Then I put a piece of the cardboard box down on top of the hive to use as a temporary cover. Here's a picture of the "little sister hive" inside our fence:

When I was all finished, there were still a few bees left in the box, and I studied it very carefully until I was absolutely sure the queen was not among the stragglers. This was what remained when I put the cardboard cover on the yellow super:

I was very proud of myself ... and took a selfie in celebration of my small success:

When I went back and checked on the hives this evening, about 9 or 10 hours after putting the swarm in the backyard, the new bees seemed to be settling in ok (they at least hadn't all left, which is the first hurdle). There were a couple still on the branch, and one even seemed to be trying to attach wax to the pine needles, so I put a stop to that straight away. I was thrilled that they had not yet built any comb on the branch, especially given how long they had been there, and I wasn't about to let them start building on it now that they have foundation to concentrate on.

My biggest concern now is that their numbers are relatively low for how far into the season we are. They aren't even as big as a nuc (roughly 4 deep frames of bees) and only fill up about 3 super frames right now. I met someone on Monday though, who is trying to start a new hive, and they haven't received the nuc they ordered yet (wet May weather delayed the queens the supplier is raising) so maybe this small colony can still make it.

Early next week, my Dad has said he will ship me some deep boxes that aren't assembled, and frames to go into them. The plan right now, is to give the new hive a deep box as soon as possible, and hopefully they hit the ground running. Once they fill the first deep, I'll give them a second deep, and most likely move the super up to the top of the hive. If they still continue raising brood in the super through the end of the season, I'll just leave it for them through the winter.

From the very start of this whole adventure, I always had it in my head that I should have at least two hives someday, I just never dreamed it would happen so fast. Keep your fingers crossed that this swarm raised a good queen and they'll build up enough stores for the coming winter!

Now that we have two hives, in conversation, my husband and I don't yet have a good name for either of them. So we're trying to come up with names, rather than just calling them the "north hive" and the "south hive." That's way too boring. So please comment with your suggestions of what you think we should name them. And stay tuned for updates on our newest addition :)