Memorial Day Swarm 2013
Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 8:32 pm
David came over this morning and helped me extract 18 medium frames of honey. As we came out, we heard and then saw a modest cloud of bees at the back of my yard. I "tanged" them for a few minutes. Even though tanging doesn't work, they settled about 10 feet up.
I got a deep and 10 of the darkest, nastiest frames I possessed. These had been moldy before I put them in the freezer and had a nice yeasty smell after I removed them from the freezer about 3 weeks ago. I figured the bees would either love them or leave. I went up the ladder and placed a frame in contact with the lowest portion of the lowest cluster. They immediately began covering the frame and fanning. I did about 8 frames this way and reduced the cluster to one small group. I shook them into my swarm bucket twice and dumped them into the hive. As of this evening, they were still in the hive and had filled the landing board with crud removed from the frames. I guess they are planning to make a home of this fixer upper.
I got a deep and 10 of the darkest, nastiest frames I possessed. These had been moldy before I put them in the freezer and had a nice yeasty smell after I removed them from the freezer about 3 weeks ago. I figured the bees would either love them or leave. I went up the ladder and placed a frame in contact with the lowest portion of the lowest cluster. They immediately began covering the frame and fanning. I did about 8 frames this way and reduced the cluster to one small group. I shook them into my swarm bucket twice and dumped them into the hive. As of this evening, they were still in the hive and had filled the landing board with crud removed from the frames. I guess they are planning to make a home of this fixer upper.