A few weeks back, I blogged about catching my first-ever swarm in a deep Langstroth hive box that I baited. I am happy to report that the queen-right colony is going strong, and today I even added another deep box to help it grow into its next phase. For those interested, the next two blogs contain a timeline of how everything has progressed up to this moment.
Friday April 17: We left off with me getting ready to move the swarm to their permanent location 50 feet away. I had caught the swarm Saturday, six days prior to moving it. The bees seemed established and were bringing in pollen. So Friday after dark, I stuffed a rag into the entrance and with my husband lighting the way, I moved the box over to the bee stand in my yard. I removed the rag and stuffed grasses and a couple of little sticks into the entrance.
Bees are adept at learning where things are, including their new home. They fly up and circle, noting details about the landscape before leaving to forage. Once they know where their home is, they memorize the address, so to speak, and return to that address. But, to learn a new address, even if it’s only 50 feet away, they need something to trigger their “GPS” system so that they will pause, circle and learn the new address upon departure. If not, they just quickly fly on out of the hive to forage and return to the old address. So, if a beekeeper puts branches and objects into and around the hive entrance, it acts as a trigger to the bees because ‘something strange is going on around here’. They will often take time to note the new address if they have to crawl through branches to get out of their home.
Saturday April 18: Many bees started going back to the original location on the pond deck, instead of the new permanent location 50 feet away. Thankfully, it was a day I was working at home, so after researching a little more, I made a “bee maze” by adding more branches and draping a towel over the general entrance area. Next, I found a small cardboard box, laced it with lemongrass oil, and set it at the old location where the bees were returning. I also read that if you put an obvious new object in the location of the old hive or bait box, the bees will recognize that it doesn’t look right and start searching for their home. So, I put a little red stool at the old location.
Approximately every 30-60 minutes, I would take the little cardboard box and empty the bees back at their new location. This worked alright, mostly because I had the time to monitor them and move them. (But I suspect it was the Margarita label on the box that really got those bees going in to investigate. I think I heard them saying it was five o’clock somewhere.) In the long run, the bees learned their new hive address within a few days.
Wednesday April 22: I did my first swarm inspection and spotted the queen! My goal was to establish a laying queen, so I only pulled 3 of the frames from near the center of the box. I saw a little brood and some larvae. There was a small, but correct amount of pollen, nectar, and honey for the size of the colony. They were very busy, and I didn’t see any small hive beetles. The colony temperament was calm, and I had no problem working without gloves.
I spotted the new queen on the second frame I pulled out! She is the most orange colored queen I have “owned”, making her easy to spot. I named her Mandarin, and watched her work for a minute while I took pictures. This first inspection had been a success! I was back in the bees, baby!
Next week, look for part two of swarm updates into May.
