Swarm-3/5/23

[Jacobs]

Swarm 3-5-23_IMG_0777(1).jpg (36.91 KiB) Viewed 11567 times

Looks like I have my comb drawing swarm. I estimate this one at 4lbs. Neighbors rang my front doorbell to let me know that it appeared as if some of my bees were headed to my neighbor behind me. They came out of one of my stronger hives and clustered in the azalea bush just below a dogwood branch I had been baiting with lemongrass oil and then with Swarm Commander. Better still, about half way between the origin hive and the cluster, I spotted a small clump of bees on the ground. I got a queen catcher clip and moved some of the bees. I saw and captured the marked queen in the clip and put it in the receiving hive. I got a good number of bees to climb onto 2 dark brood comb and finished the box with 8 undrawn frames. I'll move the bees back to my bee stands after dark and leave the queen in the clip for a couple of days. I plan on giving them a steady diet of 1:1 as long as they will continue drawing wax and will add new supers of undrawn comb as needed.

[Jacobs]

These bees were determined to relocate and made an attempt to escape.

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Most of the bees eventually came to the azalea bush, but the remaining ones called them back.

CallingThemBack_IMG_0781.jpg (21.53 KiB) Viewed 11543 times

Because the queen did not (could not) go, the bees did return.

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. Tomorrow I plan on adding a frame of open brood from another hive and wait one more day after that before releasing the queen.

[Jacobs]

These bees made another escape attempt around 1:00 pm yesterday, but had to return to their queen. At around 4:00 pm, I went into another hive and got a frame of capped and open brood to place in this swarm hive. I saw that the swarm had been drawing some comb when pulling out a frame. I replaced the robbing/moving screen in front with a queen includer and released the queen. I also gave them 1:1 in a top feeder. Maybe the brood will anchor them. Maybe the cooler weather will anchor them. Maybe. . .