• Whichever method you choose – bees should be hived at dusk or late in the afternoon so the bees don’t have time to swarm out again before dark. That way they will have all night long to consider their position.
• Bees will swarm if they think they are in danger of starvation so even if there is a strong flow in progress and the weather is set fair (ha-ha fat chance!) give them plenty of feed and they will stay put. Make sure you prime the feeder properly especially if you are using sugar syrup which has very little smell to draw the bees up.
• If your swarm has been hanging from a tree in your apiary for some time, the ‘3 feet or 3 miles’ rule will apply. In such cases it is a good idea to take the swarm elsewhere to hive it or the bees will be confused and continue to home in on the tree. Remember – they are all flying bees!
• Depending on how long your swarm was hung up before you came upon it – it may or may not have a queen. If a queenless swarm is hived close to the colony it issued from – it will just evaporate as all the bees can go ‘home’. If you brought it in from elsewhere, queenlessness could be less obvious and it will slowly dwindle.
• Unite a queenless swarm with another colony but first be sure it is queenless. Puny virgins can be horribly efficient at dispatching a great big laying queens – they’re probably faster on their feet.

Here are three methods of hiving a swarm:

Click here for the Hiving a swarm: the Easy Way

Click here for Hiving a swarm: the Pretty Way

Click here for Hiving a swarm: the No-Frills Way

First Swarm – or how not to hive a swarm

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• The hive, equipped with frames including two frames of stores and two frames of drawn foundation if possible
• A rapid feeder – Ashforth or Miller type
• Strong syrup – 2:1
• An empty super – no frames – just the box
• A lit smoker belching plenty of smoke
• A bit of foam rubber

Method

• Do this at dusk or late in the afternoon
• Set your hive on the stand
• Plug the entrance with foam rubber
• Remove the roof and crownboard
• Add the empty super – this is just to receive the bees and stop them all falling over the edges
• Pour the skepful of bees carefully into the super making sure you get all the bees out
• Smoke them down into the brood box
• Remove the super making sure you brush off all the bees
• Put the feeder on, fill with syrup and prime it ie trickle syrup over the feeder rim and on to the frames below
• Add crownboard and roof
• Leave for an hour or so then remove the foam. Don’t leave it too long if your swarm is enormous or your floor is the solid variety – they might stifle.

Click here for general information on hiving a swarm

Click here for the Easy Way to Hive a Swarm

Click here for the Pretty Way to Hive a Swarm

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Materials

• The hive stand
• The hive complete with frames preferably a couple of drawn frames and a couple of stores. The rest can be foundation
• A rapid feeder – Ashforth or Miller type
• Heavy 2:1 syrup
• A lowish hive stand or box
• A board which can be set against the hive at a gentle angle
• A white sheet

Method

• Do this at dusk or late in the afternoon
• Put the two drawn frames into the middle and the two frames of stores at the edges
• Set the hive ‘the cold way’ ie with frames perpendicular to the entrance. The drawn frames will have a bee-ish smell and set the cold way and with these in the middle the bees will notice more quickly and be drawn in
• Remove the entrance block
• Put the feeder on
• Fill with syrup and prime it i.e. slop some syrup over the feeding slot and onto the frames below
• Set the board so that it is propped against the floor just below the entrance at a low angle (about 30 degrees) and secure with a brick or some such so it won’t slide
• Spread the white sheet over the board, tuck it in and smooth out the wrinkles
• Get your skep and tip the bees onto the sheet-covered ramp
• Settle down and watch
• If they won’t get moving give the tail end a few gentle puffs of smoke
• Keep an eye out for the queen
• If there is more than one there could be a scrap – they go at it like Jack Russel terriers or so I am told
• The bees will start to walk up the ramp slowly at first
• Once the queen has gone in they will speed up – sometimes this can be really fast

Click here for general information on hiving a swarm

Click here for the Easy Way to Hive a Swarm

Click here for the No-Frills Way to Hive a Swarm

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It was our first year as beekeepers. We’d done the course, joined the local association then, come spring, we bought two nucs. We sited them in a quiet corner of the garden but quite close to the house where we could keep an eye on them. The man we bought them from came and supervised our first inspection when we found the queens and marked them but then we were on our own.

We carried out weekly inspections and kept detailed notes – I have them still – and they make for interesting reading. We kept count of queen cells but I’m not sure why. Or, more importantly, what we were doing with them! On the 12^th May there was one queen-cell, on the 18th there were 3, on the 26^th there were 5 then on the 2^nd June there were 12QC’s and a note saying, “…the queen cells are quite advanced – 2 capped” and “Fed 1kg sugar”. How did I think that was going to help I wonder? Then the inevitable – 6^th June in capital letters ‘SWARM at 3.30!!’ How did I not see that coming?

I remember the noise – that excited roar – and the shock of it. It was a hot day too – well it would be – and the air was full of bees. I easily traced the source hive – they were still billowing out as if they were being blown out of a hose. Apart from sticking my finger in the hole I didn’t know what the hell to do, so I did the headless chicken thing while I thought about it. Finally –  a moment of clarity!  I fought my way into my bee-suit and ran back to the garden, smoker in one hand and a copy of Hooper in the other, where the bees were gathering in a lump on top of a post on the other side of the garden wall.

I leapt the wall, landing with a thud in the dust – and began frantically flicking through Hooper for advice but it was buried in chapters of text. Then – a nugget of information!  I needed to get a box and I needed to invert it over the swarm.

I went back over the wall and found a cardboard box in the shed. I tossed it back over the wall and followed it with the smoker and Hooper. I upended the box over the bees and blew a tentative puff of smoke at them to try and get them go up into it. The lump of bees on the post pulled their skirts up a bit in response but didn’t really seem to be taking up residence.

It was a blazing hot day and Hooper said to shade the bees from the sun. There was something in my head about a sheet so I climbed over the wall, dug out an old one then clambered back again, the sheet the smoker, Hooper and me landing with a fusillade of thuds in the dust. I draped the sheet as best I could over the box on the fencepost which was not easy as there was a strong breeze blowing.

Before long, the activity attracted the attention of the bullocks, about 20 of them were here for the summer. They came galloping towards us like a cartoon stampede – a cloud of dust with hooves and tails sticking out of it – skidding to a halt and settling in a semicircle with their entourage of flies – coughing and belching.

Then my dog, Bunty, realizing I was over the other side of the wall with the bullocks and being a bit over-protective, suddenly jumped the wall, landed with a thud and started barking madly. The bullocks surged backwards in horror while she snapped at them – some of them began plunging about in alarm and she saw fit to chase them – it was getting a bit like Pamplona.

Apart from this bullock-hell she was creating I was afraid she was going to get stung because she reacts badly so I yelled at her and ordered her over the wall but she wouldn’t go so I had to haul myself back over the wall and call her from the other side and shut her in the house.

When I came back again it was to find that the bullocks were enchanted by the flapping white sheet and had started to tug at it. Horrified I jumped back over the wall landing with the predictable thud which was sufficiently startling to make them back off.

By now most of the bees were up inside the box under the sheet but they were still plastered to the post and I didn’t know what to do. I had a spare nuc box but no frames ready. I had syrup and I had a feeder so I was halfway there but I couldn’t see how I could get the box, the sheet and the bees off the post without crushing thousands of them against the post. Not to mention the bullocks. I knew my nearest beekeeper so I decided I was going to have to phone for help which meant the wall again. He was at work but his wife said she try and get hold of him. Despair!

Of course the bullocks were at the sheet again. I shouted at them and waved my arms but they took no notice so I threw myself over the wall again landing badly and sprawling in the dust. They backed off rapidly nearly pulling the sheet and box right off the post. Then there was another thud in the dust at my side, a hysterical barking started up and the bullocks took off in a body with their tails in the air. I had forgotten to close the bloody door and my heroic dog was here again to protect me, so once again I had to drag myself back over the wall – which was definitely getting bigger – call her over and put her back in the house.

I lurched back round the corner and fell over the wall just as the bullocks completed their circuit of the field and formed their fascinated circle again. After a minute or two the flies came back too.

So here we were in a Mexican stand off – the bullocks, the bees, the flies and me – in the heat of the day and I was beginning to tire. It was very hot and the bloody wall was taking its toll. I was dripping with sweat, it was rolling down my face, soaking my suit and pooling in my Wellington boots and filling my Marigolds. It was going to be a long day.

Then the phone started ringing inside. I was going to let it ring but thinking it might be my friendly local beekeeper I thought I’d better go. I clawed my way back over the you-know-what as quickly as possible, raking my shin painfully on the top but it stopped ringing as I picked it up. I slammed the phone down and staggered outside – as expected – they were at it again.

With the energy born of fury I leaped the wall – black in the face with rage and closely followed by the fecking dog. The bullocks took off on another circuit of the field but this time they stopped at the far corner, milling around in confusion before closing up into a tight arrowhead formation and careering across the field straight towards me. Something snapped, I was incandescent and ran straight at them yelling at the top of my voice brandishing my smoker and my copy of Hooper and followed by the hysterical dog. They scattered, perhaps finally sensing real danger they filtered off into the cool of the swamp where they took to browsing and tossing their heads about as if nothing had happened.

I clung to the wall panting for a while – then heard voices – it was the beekeeper in his bee-suit. He’d phoned, he said, to let me know he’d got off work early to come and help me – there was no answer but he came anyway and hoped I didn’t mind. I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved to see anybody in my life. He just lifted the whole thing off the post in one go and supervised me as we set up the new box and watched as the bees walked obediently up the ramp into their new home.

As simple as that – I don’t know what all the fuss was about.

Click here for How to Hive a Swarm properly

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Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the same photo but with the queen marked.

How to Find Her

There is a knack to finding the queen and nothing but practice will allow you to master that. However there are things to do, things not to do and things to look for that will increase your chances.

Things to do and things not to do

• Go quietly and gently – avoid crushing bees. Apart from the alarm pheromone any one of them could be the queen!
• Blowing smoke into the entrance or under the crownboard will set the bees running;
• Use little smoke and only when you have to;
• Use a water spray to calm the bees instead;
• Choose a day as early in the season as possible, the longer you leave it, the more crowded the hive will become – needle and haystack time. However, do be aware that if you damage the queen before there are drones on the wing it will be difficult to replace her;
• Choose a day when the bees are flying freely – there will be fewer of them sitting at home waiting to ‘help’ you.

Now…

• Carefully remove the roof then quietly crack the crownboard – more difficult if the day is cold and propolis is brittle.  Wait a minute for the bees to calm before lifting it.
• Check she isn’t on the crownboard then set it aside preferably on the upturned roof – just in case.
• Look down into the broodbox and locate the area where there are most bees – this is where the brood nest is and – as long as you’ve been gentle so far – this is where the queen will be.
• If the bees start to come up at you – spray them with water.
• Find a frame, away from the brood nest, which looks like  it will come out easily and gently remove it without rolling bees. If it turns out to have a bulge and you are rolling bees put it back and choose another;
• Make your way as quickly and quietly as possible towards the broodnest examining each frame as you go;
• When you find the pollen frame you will know that the next frame will have brood and possibly the queen so keep your eyes peeled;
• Look out for eggs – she is often on this frame;
• Look for young and emerging brood – she is often on such a frame – laying into vacant cells as the brood hatches and the bees clean the cells;
• Watch also for a frame where the bees are very quiet – there will be a high concentration of calming queen substance close to the queen;
• When lifting the frames – look first on the ‘dark’ side of the frame; the queen will instinctively move away from the light. Imagine yourself into that frame lifting situation and apply brainpower here because – words fail me.

Things to look for…

• The queen has rather different legs to the other bees – they tend to be reddish and ‘spider-like’.
• She is of course bigger than the workers – but not that much.
• Her abdomen is longer and more pointed with a swollen look.
• She moves differently to the other bees

 Marking the Queen

To mark the queen, you will need either nerves of steel or a crown of thorns to temporarily cage her.

Press it down carefully so her thorax is held within one of the squares of mesh in the cage and she is unable to move.

Do not squeeze her abdomen – that is the ‘business end’ of your queen; it is where she keeps the eggs and is very delicate and easily damaged so only press down on her thorax.

Dab a mark of the appropriate colour on her thorax then ease the cage up to let her stand up and walk about without smudging the paint on the mesh but keep her inside it for a couple of minutes while the paint dries. Click here for more on queen marking colours

 Clipping the Queen

There are many ways to clip the queen and which method you choose depends on your confidence, your manual dexterity and the steadiness of your hand – in fact this will have to be the subject of a different post.

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It consists of:

• A sheet of plywood with the same horizontal dimensions as your beehive of choice.
• It is equipped with beespace-thick (about 6-7mm) lats attached to all sides top and bottom.
• There is hole about 3″ square cut into the centre which is covered with a metal grille with mesh small enough to prevent bees from actually climbing through but large enough for them to communicate with each other through it physically with their probosces.
• On each side, top and bottom are doors which can be opened and closed by the beekeeper but not by the bees. You can get away with doors on three sides only but the fourth one can come in very handy at times. Here’s a helpful close up of one of the doors – click it for a close up:

You will need to paint the outside edges to prevent the ingress of moisture and subsequent rot. If you can’t be bothered with that you could use marine plywood and durable timber but it would be more expensive and wouldn’t look half as snazzy.

Click here for instructions on how to use it

Click here for a review of L.E.Snelgrove’s wonderful book

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Here’s how to do it:

Materials

1. Strong colonies with 9-11 frames of brood and no queen cells in one or two brood boxes.
2. If the colony is in one box – you’ll need another one equipped with drawn combs and foundation plus stores.
3. An empty nuc.

Method

• Find the queen and set her to one side (for safe keeping) in the nuc box, on the frame she was found;
• Make sure there are no queen cells anywhere – if you find queen cells the Demaree won’t work so you will have to do something else such as an Artificial Swarm;
• If the bees are in a double brood box, rearrange the frames so that all, or at least most, of the unsealed brood (eggs and larvae) is in one box (Box B) – if there is any left over, try and separate out the most mature capped brood and emerging brood and put this into Box A with any empty frames;
• Leave a space in the middle of Box A and set this box on the floorboard/meshfloor;
• Put the frame with the queen on it into the middle of box A with the sealed brood which will soon hatch leaving more space for her to lay into;
• Rebuild as follows – floor, Box A, queen excluder, supers, queen excluder, box B, crown board, roof;
• If the bees are in single box, put the new box of fresh combs (minus the middle one) on the floor as box A, put the queen on the frame she was found, into the space in the middle then rebuild as above.

Seven days later…

• Come back after no less than 7 days and check the top box for cells. If there are no cells that’s great.
•  There should be an empty frame or two by now where brood has hatched, so hook them out and set to one side;
• Go through the bottom box and check for queen cells if there were none above there will almost certainly be none below;
• Hook out a couple of frames of larvae/eggs and place these into Box B to replace the empty ones you removed;
• Put the empty frames into Box A for the queen to lay into.

If there are queen cells…

Sometimes if there are two or three supers between the two brood boxes then the bees in the top box may be sufficiently isolated that they will build emergency queen cells. If this is the case you must decide whether they are good enough to keep. If they are puny just go carefully through and make sure you knock all off.

If the bees are strong and they have made you some good cells you are now in the fortunate position of being able to put in a Snelgrove board and proceed to rear a new queen but first make sure there are no cells below.

Click here for instructions on how to proceed with that

Click here for more on Snelgrove boards

Click here for a review of L.E.Snelgrove’s book ‘Swarming : Its Control and Prevention.

Click here for an easy way to hive a swarm

Copyright © Beespoke.info, 2015.  All Rights Reserved.

Anyone in doubt about his credentials need only look at the cover of the book to see this is a man who knew how to control his swarms – note the steely gaze and not a bee out of place. Assuming of course that this is a picture of himself!

But apart from that, this is probably the most helpful book on swarming that I ever read and I have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone. While it was written in 1934 before the ravages of Varroa and oilseed rape and may seem a little old fashioned to us ever-so-modern and scientific folks, the bees are as contrary as they ever were. It is not a huge book – only about a hundred pages divided into 7 chapters with an introduction which can be dipped into at will.

How to control swarming without losing our honey crop is the age-old beekeeping conundrum; reading Snelgrove and getting to grips with his ingenious division board is a step along the way to solving it.

He summarises the causes of swarming and methods of prevention which are familiar to most people but his detailed slant on artificial swarming sheds light on why it often seems to fail. What many people fail to appreciate is that an artificial swarm will not work unless the bees are well down the road with the process. Snelgrove suggests that if the bees do not have sealed queen cells, a queen excluder should be placed beneath the brood box until the beekeeper can return, to prevent the old queen leaving with a swarm. Only then will the artificial swarm work – when the cells are capped.

Click the photo below for a close up of Snelgrove boards in action.

There are many such gems in this book but the most important chapters are those which describe his ingenious and adaptable Snelgrove board – a piece of equipment no beekeeper should be without.  For those unfamiliar with it, it is a division board equipped with a central hole covered with wire grille, through which the bees may communicate, and 6 little side-doors arranged around 3 of the 4 sides which are opened and closed sequentially.

It is used to split a colony in a double brood box and operates like a cross between a cuckoo clock and an advent calendar, bleeding bees from one box to the other and thus preventing a swarm. If the timing is right and the weather kind, it will rear a good quality queen into the bargain. Towards the end of the season the new queen is heading up the original strong colony all ready for the heather and the old queen is ticking away in a nuc. At the very least it can be used as a spare floor or to perform an artificial swarm vertically under one roof.

At time of writing – early June – with bees beginning their swarming in all directions I have to say I would hate to be facing into it without my Snelgrove boards. So take my advice – read this book then get yourself a few boards.

Click here for how to make your own Snelgrove board

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There are lots of things you can do to prepare for the swarming season – first of all set up a catcher or decoy hive.

Catcher or Decoy Hive

If there are bees looking in your windows at you – there is a swarm coming; those bees are scouts and they’re looking for a new home. They might be your bees or they might not – either way, if you haven’t already got your catcher hive out, do it now. Get an old brood box, the older the better because it will smell of bees. You’ll also need a floor and a roof of some description. Set it as high up as you can – perhaps on a shed roof or the top of a wall and if you have a choice – face it south or east, ideally in partial shade. Add a few horrible old frames, one or more of them containing old stores and you’re there. The scout bees will come looking – lured in by the smell of recent habitation – propolis, old frames and stores.  If they like it they may come back with a swarm in tow.

Better still – set out two or three battered old hives. You will likely attract two or three times the number of scouts and maximise your chances of catching a swarm.

Artificial Swarm

The artificial swarm is the most common way of dealing with a hive which is preparing to swarm but for it to be successful, the bees need to be quite well advanced along that road.

Ideally your hive will have cells which are close to being capped. If not it would be best if possible to leave them for another few days.

Equipment:

• A spare hive – floor, brood box, crown board and roof.
• A full complement of brood frames, preferably drawn or a mixture of  drawn comb and some with new foundation.
• A rapid feeder
• Strong syrup.

Method:

• Set up a hive stand 18 inches to one side of your parent stand;
• Place the floor on it;
• Take the old brood box (Box A) containing all the bees, cells, queen etc and move it to the new stand;
• Set the new brood box (Box B) on the original, or ‘parent’ stand and remove two frames from the centre of the box;
• Find your queen and place her and the frame she is on – minus any and all queen cells in the space in Box B;
• Go through Box B and remove any and all CAPPED CELLS only  BUT LEAVE THE REST ALONE;
• Add crown board and feeder with plenty of syrup whether or not you have given them foundation;
• Add roof and leave them alone for 7 days;
• All the flying bees from Box A will return to the queen in Box B who should now behave like a swarm and get on with their work;
• After 7 days you can either set up another stand 18 inches to the other side of the parent hive OR you can move them elsewhere within a couple of miles if that is more convenient – but no further away than that;
• Move the the entire hive containing Box A to that place;
• All the flying bees will leave Box A and join up with Box B and their old queen  and help filling the supers;
• Meanwhile Box A, finding themselves without flying bees will either take down all but one queen cell or they will allow the first emerged virgin to go round and do the job for them.
• If you have no faith in this, then interfere – but get it right. Select the best open cell at the start, when you take out the queen, and mark the place with a pin in the top bar of the frame then wait 7 days (when you move the box) before pruning the rest out.
• Either way they won’t swarm because they won’t have enough bees and eventually after another 3 weeks or so they will have a new queen laying.

If you don’t want another hive of bees you can remove the old queen to a nuc and unite Boxes A and B over a sheet of newpaper.

Click here for an Artificial Swarm diagram and/or Powerpoint presentation

Make a Nuc

You will need:

A 5 or 6 frame nuc;

5 or 6 frames;

Here’s what you do:

• Set the nuc close by, open it up and remove all the frames;
• Bung up the entrance with some foam;
• Find your queen and remove her on the frame she is found, minus any and all queen cells, and place her in the centre of the nuc;
• Go through the old hive and choose the best open queen cell – avoid any that are in amongst drone brood – DO NOT SHAKE THE FRAME OR YOU MAY DISLODGE THE LARVA;
• Mark the frame and the general location of the cell with a drawing pin;
• The reason for choosing the open cell is that you can be sure it is not a dud;
• Add another two frames of brood to the nuc preferably capped and not the one with the queen cell, one each side of the frame with the queen on it;
• Shake in a couple of frames of bees – do not shake the frame with the cell on it;
• Fill the space with two frames of stores preferably with plenty of pollen;
• Remove the nuc to an out apiary;
• If you don’t have one, make sure you shake in plenty of young bees then remove the foam and close the entrance loosely with some grass – if they have to remove it they will notice they have moved.

Early Split…

You can do this if there are no queen cells so long as you have brood on 8 or 9 frames. This is known as an early split and should be done between the last week in April and the first week in May before the swarming urge is initiated or even thought of. Instead the bees will just concentrate on queen replacement.

Follow the procedure laid out above disregarding the bit about queen cells.

• Always put the old queen into the nuc and not the other way round because a nuc is not strong enough and will make a poor ‘scrub’ queen.
• The main box will be strong enough to make a good new queen to take them through the season without swarming (!).
• Meanwhile you will soon be able to get the old queen and her colony out of the nuc into a full box with a super but they will be not be strong enough to think about swarming until very late in the year if at all (!)
• Between them, the two colonies will produce more honey than if you had left them together then had to perform some method of swarm control.

Click here for Swarm Prevention

Click here for an easy way to hive a swarm

Click here for First Swarm

Click here for Snelgrove’s wonderful book- Swarming; its Prevention and Control

Click here for how to make your own Snelgrove board

Copyright © Beespoke.info, 2014.  All Rights Reserved.

Swarm prevention is what you do before you find cells with larvae in them. If you find cells with larvae in them – you’re into swarm control.

The causes for swarming are gone into in these posts:

• Bee Basics: the Colony
• Bee Basics: the Queen Bee
• Queen Substance
• Bee Basics: Pheromones

Swarm Prevention Measures

Space – Make sure the bees always have loads of space. If they are covering the top bars of the box when you remove the crown board you’re late! You should have had another super on there well before then. If you think about it, 2,000 bees per day are hatching at the height of the season so if you visit your bees once per week then 14,000 will have hatched since the last time you were there and another 14,000 will hatch before your next visit. Super before you need to. Super for bees and hope for honey.

Ventilation – is less of an issue if you are using mesh floors. If you are on solid floors – set your hive the ‘cold way’ for the summer ie frames perpendicular to the entrance and open the feed holes in the crown board.

Early splits – any hives with 9 frames of brood are ripe for splitting. If you do this before the middle of May there is a chance you could get a honey crop from both halves and neither half should swarm. That’s the theory.

Method

1. First make sure there are no queen cells;
2. Get a nuc box;
3. Add  the queen – on the frame she is found;
4. Two more frames of brood with adhering bees;
5. A frame of pollen;
6. A frame of stores;
7. Shake in a few more bees;
8. Strap it up and move to an out apiary.
9. The other half will now make queen cells and unless it is very strong it shouldn’t swarm.

Equalise – This is a very useful in that it slows down your strongest hives and speeds up the weak one. Equalising the stocks in an apiary and getting them all to the same stage at the same time makes it easier to manage them. Here’s what to do:

• Go to your weakest hives first and leave out a broodless frame from each of them;
• Then go to your strongest hives;
• Remove enough frames of emerging or capped brood to add to the weak ones;
• Shake off the bees;
• Add the emerging brood into the brood nests of the weak hives and add the broodless frames into the strong hives;
• DO NOT ADD FRAMES OF EGGS OR LARVAE TO WEAK HIVES – THEY WILL NOT BE STRONG ENOUGH TO REAR THEM;
• Don’t add more than one frame at a time – there probably won’t be enough bees to cover them and you’ll be looking at chilled brood on your next visit.

Demaree – For strong colonies with 9-11 frames of brood and no queen cells in one or two brood boxes. If the colony is in one box – you’ll need another one equipped with drawn combs and foundation plus stores.

• Find the queen and set her to one side in a nuc box, on the frame she was found;
• Make sure there are no queen cells anywhere;
• If the bees are in a double brood box, rearrange the frames so that most of the unsealed-est brood is in one box (box B) – if there is any left over, try and put the sealed-est brood in the other box (box A);
• Leave a space in the middle of box A;
• Put the frame with the queen on it into the middle of box A with the sealed brood which will soon hatch leaving more space for her to lay into;
• Rebuild as follows – floor, box A, queen excluder, supers, queen excluder, box B, crown board, roof;
• If the bees are in single box, put the new box of fresh combs (minus the middle one) on the floor as box A, put the queen on the frame she was found, into the space in the middle then rebuild as above.

Snelgrove – we’ll have to get back to that one…

The book is called Swarming: It’s Prevention and Control by L.E.Snelgrove

Click here for Swarm Control

Click here for how to Demaree

If all this fails – click here for an easy way to hive a swarm

Copyright © Beespoke.info, 2014.  All Rights Reserved.