April Fool's Day Swarm

[Jacobs]

The hive beside the open nuc decided to swarm


David Lancaster went up the tree to cut the limb, but the bees scattered. Peter Ashe came by, and we decided to try a new approach in the morning.


The bees had made a tighter ball. Curly (Pete) didn't show up, so Larry (David) and Moe (Jacobs) went it alone. Duct tape is wonderful stuff. David went up the tree, I positioned the bucket, and David shook the bees into the bucket. I brought the bucket down and dumped the bees into another waiting bucket.


The queen is in the bucket.


I am planning to cut a circle out of a 5 gallon bucket top, cut the plastic queen excluder to fit the opening, and glue it in place. Next time we dump a queen in the bucket, all we will have to do is put the top on and wait for the scattered bees to come to her.

[SmithN]

I like that method.
Don't forget to post pics of your queen excluder "lid"

[Jacobs]

I had been thinking about the 5 gallon bucket queen excluder top for awhile, but didn't have the need for it until now. Our experience with the excluder on the bucket bringing down the rest of the swarm convinced me this might be worth trying.



Not the prettiest job, but it might just work.