First Swarm Collection April 2020
First Swarm capture of 2020
I only started keeping bees in 2019 and that year rescued a small wild nest in a hedge being drowned by rain and a bumblebee nest in a bird box that had to be relocated. I have read many books, watched many videos on easy and hard examples of swarm capture. I was and am on standby for calls to a proper swarm! The call came two minutes after I had finished work (like most, working from home currently) last Wednesday 29th April. I keep a swarm kit in my car just in case, consisting of:
- Skep
- White sheet
- String for the above
- Pair of secateurs
- Large secateurs for big branches
- Smoker and fuel
- Blowtorch
- Gloves
- Bee suit
- Poly Nuc box with frames, one drawn, has a dial so you can change the entrance to suit
- Ladder near the car
On speaking to the owners of the garden on the phone it really did sound like a proper swarm this time, albeit a small one. I duly turned up, they stood inside their conservatory and watched, nothing like having an audience for your first swarm collection! On inspection it was indeed a small swarm, just a couple of fistfuls of bees, on a branch, hanging down under a small bush. They had arrived at the typical time, just after lunch after the sun had come out. It was now dull and raining, they really needed rescuing. I arranged all my equipment and planned. Laid the sheet on the plants under the swarm, held the Nuc under the swarm, gave them a shake so they dropped into it, brushed a few more bees off the bush into the box, lifted the sheet and tipped them in, added the lid, and put it on the floor beside the bush so the flyers could enter (entrance set to queen excluder). By the time I turned around the owner had come out. I could not resist the opportunity to say, “and that is how you capture a swarm!”. I wasn’t going to tell him it was my real first one and that this is as easy as it gets. Clearly a cast with a princess. They seem to be doing well, I hope she mates OK and brings on a great hive. This Video is from just after I opened the dial on Friday so she can go on her mating flights.