Longest Bee Post Ever - Our First Swarm!

So we got a call from our neighbor the other night that there was a swarm in Albany, and we should go grab it. We had a friend staying with us, so we quickly made dinner and drove over to their house. I was reading to Aaron from the bee book as we drove, so he would know what to do. He was nervous about his first swarm capture.


As chance would have it, a beekeeper named Chuck just happened to be driving by right as Aaron was going in to get it. Chuck got right in there, no protection and scooped the swarm into the nuc. Aaron was thrilled to be off the hook!

Within minutes the bees stuck their butts out to expose their Nasonav glands (wiki has a good picture of the actual gland). The pheromone released by this gland guides the other bees in. Scout bees had been out looking for a new home for the swarm, so they were coming in the whole hour that we stood around talking.


Finally we smoked the last of them in. But then we kept on talking, and after 15 minutes, 12 more bees came and were trying frantically to get in the closed door. I guess I whined enough, because Chuck was kind enough to open the little door and let them in. How horrible to come back from working hard for your sisters only to find out you had been abandoned!


Next thing I know, we are climbing up on Chuck's roof to check out his hives down the street.



This swarm was small, and on its own would not make it through the winter. The reason we captured this swarm was to combine it with our smaller hive that hasn't been doing well.
We took our new bees home, and set their nuc on top of the hive that they would be combined with and left them for 2 days until we had time to work with them. Unfortunately it was super hot this week, and they didn't have a lot of ventilation in that little box, so they spent a lot of time "out on the porch".


Side note - our other hive (black queen) is doing awesome. We will get extra honey from them, but we may need to supplement the smaller hive this year with it.


So here is how you combine two hives...You can't just put them together or there will be war. We were told to kill the weaker queen before we put them together. The thought of killing our golden queen made me feel sick. Besides, how are we really to know which queen is better? So I did some research and found that you can let the queens duke it out - and hope they don't both die in the process. We never saw the new queen when we moved them over, so it will be interesting to see who is in there next weekend. Anyway, you put a sheet of newspaper between the supers that has tiny holes punched in it. In theory this allows the bees to smell each other for a while before they "meet".


Another side note, bees like to make these silly bee bridges for some reason.


After we placed the newspaper and the super on top of the old hive, we opened up the nuc. The black box is a feeder. Aaron transferred the frames into the new Western.


And then poured in the rest.


They were using their Nasonov glands before we even had the top on.


He filled the top feeder and put the lid back on.


The next night we walked out to check on them, and it was apparent there was indeed a war going on. Amongst the bits of newspaper they chewed up and spit out the front door were tons of dead and dying bees. You can see them warring in the background.


We felt horrible - look at all those dead bees! By this morning there were 10 more dead bees on the doorstep, but they seem to have figured it all out by now. No more fighting, and Aaron drove down to Glory Bee today, they told him it's normal to lose 60 or so bees in the process. I'd say we are right about on track. I'm just glad they didn't annihilate each other! I don't know what happened with the new queen though - I'm worried they older hive may have killed her.


This reminds me of the Corvallis Police Department - ever seen 4 cop cars and 2 ambulances for 1 drunk college student? Apparently it takes 8 bees to remove one enemy!


I'll keep you posted on the outcome of this combining!