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Take 1 Feeling like old hands at this swarm capture lark, we moved with confidence. Up the step ladder to shake the cluster into a cardboard box and back down the step ladder to pour the bees into the nucleus hive on the ground. Repeat as needed.
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Take 2 Could we have missed getting the queen? It seemed unlikely since we had caught the main mass of the cluster. The bees were surely just taunting the beekeepers as bees will do. Undeterred we climbed the ladder, cut off the bee-laden branch, and carried it to the nuc. Shaking the cluster into the nuc, we disposed of the branch to deny them a familiar distraction from the home we were offering.
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![]() Actually we set up two ladders. They had clustered at the fork of a thick, long-dead branch. While one of us held the branch immobile the other trimmed off excess length and finally cut away the fork. Carefully carrying it to the nuc we once again shook the bees into the nuc on the ground. This time we were rewarded with a few fanners at the entrance, bums in the air, wings spreading the homing scent of Nasonov. A small tide of bees walked into the nuc and we felt quite pleased until we noticed the growing tide leaving. |
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![]() Instead of felling the tree, we partially cut through the trunk at a little more than ladder height and then carefully bent it down to be roughly parallel to the ground. We now moved the ladder under the cluster and placed the nuc on the ladder shelf so that the bees were directly above the open nuc. Now you will not be expecting the next bit but we shook the bees into the nuc one more time. |
![]() As we complacently watched the bees entering the nuc, we remarked on the way our each attempt at capture had sent them ever deeper and ever higher into the thicket, whereupon we spied a cluster of bees impenetrably deeper in the thicket and impossibly higher. Our spirits fell for a few seconds until we noticed that the surface of the cluster seemed oddly boiling. Over the next several minutes it diminished as its bees joined the rest of the swarm in the nuc, abandoning this last bivouac. Elated once more, we went to the house for dinner and a rest, returning to collect the nuc at dusk when all the bees would be within. And so the nuc, wee Angharad reborn, has joined the full hives in our apiary. |
2020 May 29
Nevertheless We Persisted
Posted by theprospectofbees under beekeeping | Tags: beekeeping, swarming |[6] Comments
2020 May 30 at 11:54
WOW! I applaud your persistence and cunning wildly!
And yay, Angharad! Long and prosperous life to the populations you foster!
2020 May 30 at 18:51
Thank you. And third time the charm for wee Angharad? So we hope.
2020 May 30 at 16:44
They made you work for them!
2020 May 30 at 18:52
They did indeed!
2020 June 01 at 16:57
Wow, what a story. Something to tell the grandkids!
Did you put a frame of honey or other temptation in the nuc on your first attempts? I’ve had mixed success with this myself, but I imagine that having food and comb already present might encourage them to remain.
Love your persistence and creativity. Nice work 🙂
2020 June 01 at 17:12
Thanks. Why is it that the books never list bowsaws among beekeeping equipment?
The nuc on our first try had just a slight bee-ish smell from previous use. Evidently insufficient incitement to stay. Our first swarm capture was so textbook simple into new equipment and our second not much harder that we may have developed unrealistic expectations. We have no idea what finally changed their collective mind this time.