Whenever we find a swarm much above eye level, the Steinkraus-Morse Swarm Catcher is called into action. You can make one by cutting the bottom out of a plastic flower pot and attaching a cloth sack. The height is adjustable by the length of bamboo used. Many thanks to Don Steinkraus for writing about it, and Terry Kelly of Berkeley for sending it to me. It’s invaluable.
I consider myself a ‘natural beekeeper.’ I don’t make splits, raise my own queens, or buy package bees. I let the bees swarm. I believe in the adage, “Swarming Bees are Healthy Bees.” Having said that, when the bees swarm, we have to catch them. If they swarm into the bamboo, it’s lower to the ground, but difficult to get. If they swarm into the spruce tree, they generally cluster up high. The first one this year formed high, then re-formed to a lower more reachable area.
Pipe holders for a length of bamboo to slip into.
Sew in a curve to avoid trapping bees in a corner.
Velcro attaches the sack to the cut off flower pot.My first swarm this year happened last week. I was busy with printing deadlines when my wife shouted, “WE HAVE A SWARM!” The bees seem to like this spruce tree. It’s been the scene for three swarms now, two of which we have caught.
Centering the catcher under the swarm.
The idea is to position the catcher under the swarm before bumping the branch to make the bees fall directly into the sack. Last year I was able to ‘pop’ the branch upward to get a bunch of bees all at once. This time it didn’t go as planned. The bees clung to the branch. When I ‘popped the branch,’ They started flying around and getting all defensive. The camera lady was concerned (maybe because we were both getting stung) so we didn’t get the action on video. The next morning we were more successful. We trimmed a few branches and I was able to ‘pop’ the branch from above. The bees fell into the sack, the sack was emptied into the empty Warre, and all is well as of day 4.
April 15, 2014…This is day 4. I’m assuming the bees have decided to stay.
April 15, 2014…the bees can be seen through the observation window. Chaining to ‘measure’ for building natural comb.
I’m sure you’ve seen the you-tube video of the guy putting his bare hand into a swarm of bees. As I suited up to get this newly formed swarm, I’m thinking, “what a sissy I am. The swarm just formed, they’re not going to sting.” Let’s just say, I’m glad I was suited up. I was able to give this bee sting remedy a good test. By softening up the end of a clove of garlic, rubbing it onto the stings to relieve the pain and the swelling, I can report that it worked well on all our stings.
I found out about peppermint oil from one of the bee forums. If you daub some of it around the sting area, it will cover up the bee’s alarm pheromone…just don’t daub it directly on your sting because it can be much more painful than the sting itself. Believe me, I know.
January 14, 2013…a beautiful warm day brought the bees out to the heather. I saw very few honeybees, but very many bombus Melanopygus (this one) and also Bombus vosnesenskii (yellow-faced bumbles)
Here you can see the pollen release. When the bee gets the nectar, the pollen shoots out.
As she grooms herself with her front legs, you can see what looks to be a static electricity charge on her bee fuzz…it shows up better on the video.
This short video shows a bumblebee (bombus Melanopygus) sipping nectar from heather in mid January. As she sips, pollen can be seen shooting out. Later she grooms herself. I noticed what looked to be a static electricity charge when her front legs combed her fuzzy head.
I didn’t want to interrupt the music so I added some video of my Bee-atrice log hive which didn’t make it through the sub freezing weather. I looked at a comb which had some capped honey as well as uncapped cells. I replaced the comb in the hopes that this hive will attract a swarm in spring.
It should be raining sideways this month. It’s not. After our cold snap, we’ve been enjoying daytime temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s F. (10’s and 20’s C) When I filmed this it was 71 F. (22 C). Our honeybees love it. They are bringing back yellow and orange pollen. I can’t figure where they’re getting it because the pussy willows aren’t blooming yet, but traffic is heavy as can bee seen on the video.
This is my second winter with bees. They don’t fly when it’s raining of course, but we do get breaks in the rain, the sun pops out and the bees are flying. I feel bad for the beekeepers that must tuck their charges to bed in the autumn and trust they will emerge when the weather warms up sometimes months later. I’m talking about people like Emily Heath among others in cold far away places. 🙂 I guess you could say I’m spoiled to be able to see them active during the winter. I don’t know what will happen in spring. It’s possible we’ll get our rain then…given the choice, I’d rather get it now. In any case the bees are making use of the warm weather.
December 27…Bees in Bee Beard Log Hive have found a pollen source late in the year. Natural comb can be seen in the rear. In the video, the bees can be seen entering the hive and moving downward in front of the comb.
December 27…Warre Hive is being fed with a dry sugar mix consisting of green tea, chamomile tea, nettle leaf extract oil, cane sugar, and a few other little gems. The sugar was placed on a 2″ x 2″ frame and positioned between the brood box and the quilt box, then sealed with red tape. I’m not real excited about feeding sugar to the bees. It’s possible that I won’t do that next year, but that’s what I said last year too. It’s the only hive that is being fed this year.
December 27…Even this little hive was flying today. The pink insulation is meant to cut the cold wind, but it still lets the hive breathe through the quilt box on top.
This beautiful box of honeycomb is ‘welded’ to the box below…to move it, I’ve got to cut the bottom of the comb. I’d like to do it without damaging it or killing bees.
I only wanted to switch the third box (full of honeycomb) with the top box which was empty. The box of honeycomb was blocking the empty, so it made sense to swap…but the honeycomb was attached to the bars in the box below. If I just pried the box up, I might tear the combs apart leading to a real mess. I consulted the forums…Bernhard suggests cracking the boxes a bit then taking a thin wire to slice through the bottoms of the combs to lift the box out.
I wound a short length of stainless steel wire around some cut broomstick ends. I’ll see-saw it back and forth to carefully cut through comb.
After reading some of the experiences of beekeepers tearing apart combs I knew I wanted to avoid that. The whole thing actually took less time than I thought…about 5 minutes. It came apart with the minimum of damage.
I shot this video (sped up in parts to avoid the ‘yawn’ effect)
My first Warre is the one on the left. It’s the one I was really worried about not getting through the winter. It wintered over with only one box which is now on the bottom.
I don’t know why I was so skeptical when people talked about getting honey bound. I guess I never thought I’d get ANY honey at all because the summers on the coast are so windy and cool. Our main goal was to provide a place for the bees to live, let them pollinate our flower and vegetable garden, and just take pleasure in watching them do their thing.
When we captured a swarm last year to inhabit the Warre, it was a small one which seemed to build the first box very quickly and then just stopped building. I wintered over with just one box and on the advice of many more knowledgeable people, fed the bees a dry sugar paddy.
Bottom box (#1) over wintered successfully. So we added box #2 in February.
On February 15, I added a second box. When the bees wouldn’t fill it, I added some comb ladders on March 24th. The bees immediately started building comb which is full now as can be seen below.
Box #2 As soon as the comb ladders were added, the bees built fast so the queen could lay. When it was 3/4 full, I added a third box.
When box #2 was 3/4 full we added box #3, but comb was getting scarce so I tried using t-posts with a melted wax coating to act as a ladder. Small pieces of comb was ‘welded’ to the top bars.
Box #3…adding t-posts with small bits of comb ‘welded’ to them on April 2nd.
Box #3 built up so fast we added Box #4 on May 1. But now we have this honey bound problem as can be seen below…
Box #3 is so full of honey, it’s blocking the queen from getting into the top box. The t-posts worked well.
We didn’t realize we’d get any honey…and really didn’t want to take any…UNLESS there was an excess while a nectar flow was on. Oregon’s big nectar source of blackberries is going on right now, so we will put this box #3 on top and the empty box #4 will be inserted between #1 and #2. If they build that out, I’ll get to harvest the honey.
Vernon’s Perone hive, showing the brood box (24 inches in length, width and depth), one super and the roof. Construction was of Douglas Fir with the exterior thin-coated with linseed oil. Materials cost about $140 including the concrete footed mounting frame and a sheet of galvanized metal for the roof.
When my first Warre hive was threatening to swarm, I knew I was in trouble. I didn’t want any more hives but I wanted to give it to someone who would really appreciate a prime swarm. I found out about Vernon through the new bee keeping network of Oregon South Coast Beekeepers Association…he had just built a Perone hive. He wanted a swarm rather than package bees. That was me a year ago. The bees swarmed on Mother’s Day, May 12, 2013. We handed him a bucket of bees a day later, but I didn’t want to leave it at that, I had never seen a Perone hive before and wanted to see how big it was…I wanted to make sure our bees had a good home.
He sent me these photos and his details…
The plans I used to construct my hive are on-line:
The authors are from Chile so the useful dimensions are in metric. Perone insists that the internal dimensions of the brood box be 57 X 57 X 57cm, which is 184.5 liters. Each of his supers is 32.5 liters. Whenever I converted to English units I adjusted the measurements slightly for convenience. My brood box is built of 1 X 6 inch lumber, which of course actually measures 3/4 X 5 1/2 inches.
Stacking 4 boards on edge gave me a brood box 22 inches in height (not including the floor which is 3/4 inch thick). The outside dimensions for length and width were 24 X 24 inches, so the interior dimensions were 22 1/2 X 22 1/2 inches
Scrap lumber sticks placed inside the brood chamber to help support the expected massive comb loads.
The height of my supers is 4 1/2 inches rather than the 4 inches recommended by Perone. I measured my bars in metric (24 cm height and width, which is about 15/16 inches) and cut them on a circular saw from 2 inch cross-section stock.
There were 49 bars: 17 bars for the brood comb spaced 9mm apart, and 16 bars each for the two supers, spaced 10 mm apart.
Perone insists that the brood comb bars be 9mm apart because he feels this helps the bees maintain optimal brood comb temperature to fight infestations. Also, that spacing is preferred by the queen, so an excluder isn’t needed to keep her in the brood box.
Note the lower entry and 2 inch deep landing strip. The metal strip above the entry is a mouse guard. The upper landing strip is also attached to the brood box.
My gabled roof has a 5 1/2 inch peak and the ridge is 31 1/2 inches long. The roofing is made from 1 x 6 inch boards and is covered by galvanized sheet metal.
Side view of the hive just after the swarm dump. Everyone’s confused!
It wasn’t long before scouts returned and started their waggle-dance.
I asked Vernon if he would consider shooting a video of the bees…
This video was shot on May 23rd about 9 days after installation.
Some updates below…
On Aug 3, 2013, at 10:50 PM, Vernon Strength <eurekawriters@yahoo.com> wrote:
Today I removed the super from my Perone hive and had a chance to look down through the brood box grid bars. The attached photo shows that the bees have been building weird comb: rather small, all in the southeast corner, cross-combed to the extreme, and the comb cells between the bars are oriented “up.” After almost three months the population of the hive seems about the same as the original swarm.
Obviously, my inclusion of a super from the beginning was a dumb idea. The colony isn’t going to come close to filling their brood box by winter, much less a super. My only defense is that I believed the South American beekeepers’ claims of rapid proliferation in the first few months.
Now the roof lid is directly over the brood box bars, almost touching them, so maybe the bees won’t be able to move over the top of the bars so easily to produce vertically-oriented brood cells. That might reduced cross-combing, too. Still, it’s already August and I don’t think there is time before winter for the bees to change their ways and build enough aligned combs towards the center of the grid. They will have a hard time increasing their numbers significantly in their present nest, which may also be hard for them to heat in winter. I can’t think of anything else to do now that I’ve removed the super. Unless you have any suggestions I’ll follow the Perone philosophy and let the bees figure it out.
Vernon
On Aug 26, 2013, at 12:42 AM, Vernon Strength <eurekawriters@yahoo.com> wrote:
The population of the Perone hive colony seems to have increased significantly in the last few days, based on the unprecedented numbers entering and leaving the hive entryway. Maybe they’ve increased their numbers for a last big food gathering push before winter. It’s still a mystery what they are foraging on; they still fly straight up and over some big trees and disappear when they leave the hive, and they return from the same direction. Lots of bumblebees have foraged around my house, but zero honeybees.
Last time I gave you an update I was concerned that there was so much cross-combing, and the comb was smaller than I’d expected. It appears that the oddball comb has produced lots of brood though, the comb is ugly but functional, so I’m going to follow the Perone approach and leave the bees to gather their own supplies. If this colony doesn’t make it through the winter I’m going to feel like a murderer.
I’ve started building another Perone hive using lessons learned from this first one. The main difference is a 11in X 16.5in observation window. I’m going to mount the new hive on the same platform with the first one, but probably the entry will face in the opposite direction so the bees won’t get confused about which entry to use.
Ciao,
Vernon
November 26, 2013…I took my new & improved Perone hive to the beekeeper’s meeting in Gold Beach last Thursday and got a lot of interest. In fact, Del is thinking of using something similar while he’s in the Peace Corps. The new version has two large picture windows so I won’t be completely in the dark about activities inside the hive the way I am now. The day-before-yesterday I checked the first hive when the weather was damp and in the low-to-mid 50’s and there were no signs of life. I put my ear to the side wall but could hear nothing, so I lightly rapped it with my knuckles and three bees came out to see what was going on. I concluded that the hive was simply hunkered down inside due to foul weather. Really, I’m not sure what the temperature was outside, though I have two thermometers that weren’t cheap. It’s nearly impossible to find a mercury thermometer anymore: The alcohol substitutes are safe but inaccurate. When I compare thermometers at a store they always show different readings (i.e., two different thermometers of the same make & model may have readings over 5 degrees apart). The Italian bees we are keeping are apparently notorious for taking the day off when it’s coolish outside. My friend Steve Sottong of Eureka recovered a swarm he claims was about 3X the volume of mine. His bees are little and black, probably the species native to Great Britain, and they forage when it’s in the high 40’s.
Del suggested again that I feed my bees. His idea had some appeal: Hang a Christmas candy cane from a top bar using a string or thin flexible wire. Of course, once I do that I no longer have a “pure” Perone experiment going, so I’m torn. Maybe the foragers are still finding nectar. Lots of ivy grows around my neighborhood, and some weed flowers still persist.
November 28, 2013…Well, my (inaccurate) thermometer reads 61 damp degrees and my foragers are out in moderate numbers, moving verrrry slowwwly. The bees appear healthy so I’m attributing their lethargy to the cool moist weather and perhaps advanced age. I can tell the bees I’m seeing are all experienced veterans because they approach the small entryway so accurately. The inexperienced foragers I observed in mid-summer came in crazy-fast and usually crash-landed on the runway, sometimes banging their heads against the hive walls or landing on other bees. Anyway, nothing worrisome to report regarding the colony.
Vernon
January 24, 2014…The Perone bees are busy foraging this morning, taking advantage of the unseasonable 64 degree F. (17.7 C) temperature. I’ve still never fed them. Hopefully they are finding nectar someplace (the myrtle trues seem to have buds).
Vernon
Solarbeez says…Hi Vernon, I’m so glad you decided not to feed. I’ve been reading Michael Bush’s book, “The Practical Beekeeper.” He talks about the pH of the hive. When you feed sugar, it raises the pH of the hive which makes it more susceptible to nosema.
The only hive I’m feeding is the Warre, but I’m going to discontinue that. I never took any honey, but I CAVED IN to the temptation to feed them dry sugar. The other two hives are not getting fed and they seem to be fine.
Here’s another Michael Bush quote you won’t see anywhere else… On Page 435…
“Pathogens?
Even some seemingly pathogenic organisms such as Aspergillus fumigatus which causes stonebrood, supplants worse pathogens, in this case Nosema. Or Ascosphaera apis which causes Chalkbrood but prevents European Foulbrood.”
Thanks for the update.
Pat
January 26, 2014…The Perone bees are collecting from a different pollen source today, a golden yellow variety.
January 26, 2014…The only flowers I see in my yard are on these myrtle trees, which locals also call pepperwoods or bays. Of course, my bees never forage around my yard so I don’t know their actual pollen source.
February 10, 2014…Vernon says, “After a few days of rain the foragers are again out in force, and they are collecting more golden-yellow pollen than ever. This winter has been so warm and dry I’m not sure the Perone hive is getting an adequate test.”
Vernon’s entries:
February 19, 2014…Drove to Crescent City this afternoon and Queen Anne’s Lace weeds were blooming all along the road.
February 22, 2014…The foragers are out today in about the same numbers I saw during the summer. It’s likely the colony considers that Spring has arrived. A few dead or dying workers were on the ground below the entrance, probably over-winter bees that have been replaced by the next generation. I believe the queen started laying during the mid-January warm spell. About 20% of the foragers are bringing back golden-yellow pollen, which Carla believes comes from Myrtle trees. Odd that our west coast winter has been so mild while the east coast has been frigid and stormy.
March 27, 2014…
I’m hoping to finish my second Perone hive this weekend. Will send photos when I do. I also want to write a summary of my conclusions after taking a Perone hive through the winter without feeding or treating or helping them in any way. My friend Steve in Eureka lost 5 of his 6 Langs, including the one that housed the huge swarm I wrote you about (small, cold-adapted black bees from northern Europe). He’s looking into setting up a horizontal hive.
Of course I’m in need of a swarm. Please let me know if you hear of one available.
Vernon
March 27, 2014…Pat’s reply
My congratulations on getting through the winter without feeding or treating. I welcome your conclusions on that. I understand your second hive will have an observation window. You’re going to love it.
My log hive has bees that are fanning. I think they might be getting crowded. Last year the first swarm was on a hot 80˙F day on March 31. If the weather settles down, that could happen again this year. The first swarm has been promised away for a swarm swap. I’m debating whether to keep it (if that person’s hive isn’t ready) or give it away to try to get different genetics. I’m hoping my other log hive will attract a swarm without me interfering.
If Vernon sends photos, I will post them here.
April 26, 2014 Lessons Learned
Last May I introduced a swarm of moderate size into a Perone mk2 hive. The colony survived the winter and appears to be thriving. Since the hive has no observation windows I infer colony condition by watching the numbers and behaviors of individuals who venture out.
The hive is located in mixed woodlands on the northern California coast, USDA plant hardiness zone 9b. Winter was warmer than usual this year, with only one hard freeze. While it may be argued that survival through a mild winter isn’t an adequate test of the Perone design and philosophy, it remains that beekeepers in my area with carefully-tended Langstroth hives reported roughly the same high losses this year as previously.
Hopefully the success of my hive will encourage others to try Perone hives. I strictly followed the Perone approach of benign neglect.
I never fed my bees. They were industrious foragers and didn’t appear to need any sugar water. At times it was difficult to resist feeding, because experienced beekeepers I respect advised me in the strongest terms to either feed my bees or watch them die. They cited seasonal stoppages of nectar flows (while flowers were in bloom) and pollen production (when pollen.com warned allergy sufferers in my area of high pollen counts). Swarms were represented as particularly vulnerable to starvation. My bees proved the experts wrong. Apparently feeding is so strongly entrenched in our beekeeping culture that it will persist superstitiosly no matter what.
Hive inspections. I never opened my hive to check the condition of the comb. Typically beekeepers open their hives at least monthly to check for diseases, monitor comb development, and discourage swarming.
Disease treatment: I never observed disease syptoms in my Perone bees. Of course they were given the “preventative medicine” of a Perone hive. The design of the Perone hive discourages disease through a more natural, healthful, undisturbed environment, and the relatively large populations of Perone colonies encourage thorough hygiene and robust reactions to parasite infestation. However, I do kill every yellowjacket I see.
Monitoring comb development: The only apparent benefit of monitoring comb is that it’s fascinating for the beekeeper. The removeable frames or top bars of more traditional hives encourage maniputation of comb positions. For example, one of my colleagues found that some of his Langstroth hives were “honey bound.” These hives had a few brood frames located between frames of mostly honey, which he said inhibited the development of more brood. In response he moved the honey frames to outside positions to encourage more brood nearer the center. My colleagues often switch frames between hives. For example, if a hive is producing more brood and less honey than what is considered optimal a honey frame is brought in from another hive and exchanged for an “excess” brood frame.
Drone cells and queen cells are often destroyed, as they consider worthless. Most destroy the “swarm cells” of developing queens to avoid population reduction in their hives due to swarming. Many “re-queen” (killed the queen and introduced a new one) when brood development doesn’t meet their expectations.
These are the same beekeepers who report 30-40% losses or worse over the winter and attribute the survival of my colony to luck. I never inspected the comb in my Perone hive—for all I know it may be “honey bound” and full of drone and swarm cells—but it seems to be working.
The value of swarms: The swarm introduced into my Perone hive appeared very organized from the beginning. Foragers quickly set out in all directions, returned in an excited state, and congregated for waggle-dancing on the landing platform in front of the hive entry. After the first day the foragers I observed always left my yard and returned from the same direction. From this I infer that the foragers quickly found an optimal feeding area and returned to it regularly thereafter.
Last week I introduced a 3 pound package of purchased bees into a second Perone hive. So far these bees appear disorganized compared to the swarm. It took several hours for the package bees introduced inside the hive to discover and regularly use the single entryway, compared to about 20 minutes for the swarm. And I never saw the package bees waggle dance. Now, after a week, the foragers continue to meander around, each in her own direction, without urgency.
My theory is that a swarm is more specialized to establish a new colony than most beekeepers appreciate. The swarm population seems to be made up of an appropriate number of workers specialized to perform each of the needed functions. It’s known that individuals carry enough supplies in their bodies to begin the processes. By contrast, package bees are shaken off frames pulled from established hives without regard for the functions the workers are currently performing. Then they are packaged with an unfamiliar queen and shipped off with some syrup to eat. What an awful start for a colony! In this first week I’ve observed a disturbing number of dead bees from the package bee colony.
Other hive maintenance. My hive is mounted on concrete foundation blocks that settled over the winter. The hive is no longer level. After some consideration I decided not to level the hive. There are no rigid frames in a Perone hive, so the bees are free to angle their comb building to adjust for settling. Returning the hive back to level would require the bees to readjust.
5-6-13…at 10:40 am there is an audible humming…the bees are revving up already.
I had heard about ‘tanging’ recently (banging a spoon on a cooking pot when bees start to swarm to get them to land close by and down low). I tried it out three times last week and it seemed to work. All three times were with one hive and all three times, the ‘swarm’ calmed down and went back into the hive after about 15 minutes. That seemed to be proof beyond a doubt the tanging worked. The third time I tried it out, I took video of it which can bee seen below…
On Saturday, May 4, they started in again about 10 or 11 am. My wife was not happy that she was doing all the work in our veggie garden while I was happily shooting video on the bees, so the bees had to do their thing while I had to do my thing. After 15 minutes of frenzied flying, they settled down again with no tanging. So there goes my theory.
On Sunday they were fine. On Monday they get all worked up again. Seems like there are lots more. I don’t have time to catch an impending swarm so I tang again to try to keep it close.
At 10-47, I start tanging to keep the swarm as close to home as possible.
Temperature at 66 deg. F (less than 20 deg. C) They wouldn’t be bearding, would they?
At 11:02 more bees are flying out. Some are flying excitedly above the hive as well as crawling onto the side.
At 11:05 there are quite a few on the front, but fewer are flying around and they are flying lower.
At 11:07 they are definitely calming now and actually filing back into the hive.
At 4:38 pm, I checked on them again. Looks like they decided to stay on the outside.
I shot this video and sped it up in parts to keep it relatively short. It was shot on May 3, so you can see the difference in the size of the ‘swarm,’ if it is a swarm…but if it isn’t, then what is it?
What to do if you need to add ‘ladders’ to your Warre box, but you don’t have any comb. I don’t want to use any plastic foundation or anyone else’s comb. So I’m using melted organic wax and painting it on posts hung from the top bars. It worked last time so I feel confident it’ll work this time.
It doesn’t take much wax, or much time to melt, so stick around when you do this.
Coating the bars and posts
These are how the t-post ladders will hang down once they are in the hive…trouble is I couldn’t remember if the bees build comb with less than 3/8 inch or more than 3/8 inch.
I started gathering the items together, went out to my bee hives and observed what looked like a swarm forming. I grabbed the melting pot and spoon and started tanging. Three days ago they headed back in when I tried tanging. Maybe this time too, then I’ll add the extra box and maybe they’ll be happy.
At 10:07 am It looks like a swarm is forming on the hive I want to add the box to
At 10;11 am Yep, a swarm is in the works…quick, get the wax melting pot and bang on it with a spoon
At 10:15 am, it’s still growing so I tang faster, wondering if I’m crazy
At 10:16 am, swarm bees are flying higher and higher
At 10:20 am, it almost looks like they are calming down
At 10:28 am after about 10-12 minutes of tanging, they are headed back in
At 10:35 am, they are definitely headed back in
At 10:44 am, they’ve calmed down for today…what about tomorrow?
At 10:58 am I add the box with t-post ladders. I’ve got to get a hive jack so I can do this right next time.
At 11:05 am, bees are crawling up t-post ladders already.
Day 3, the bees are still climbing the posts and a daisy-chain is visible.
This is what we were waiting for…Bee Beard’s Prime Swarm, but it was waaay out of reach
When we started keeping bees we read that a healthy hive will swarm, at least once every year. Our goal was to get through the winter without feeding, medicating, or miticiding. The swarm would be our sign of success. On a warm day March 30th, that’s what happened. We heard the loud buzzing, came out to witness the bees heading up to the top of a nearby spruce tree. I even tried ‘tanging,’ banging a spoon on a pan to create noise so they wouldn’t go far and would form near the ground. I was wildly unsuccessful. This would have been the swarm to get, but it was clearly out of reach.
Swarm #2, April 17 is within reach
Swarm number 2 is withing reach, but the 2nd log hive isn’t ready for it yet…I’ll have to stick it into the ‘back-up Warre.”
Let’s try out this bamboo swarm catcher so I won’t have to use a ladder
Well I ended up using a ladder to cut the bamboo and let the swarm drop into the white sail cloth basket.
My wife noticed some bees on the ladder…we brought it near the hive for them to crawl in, but looking closer, we noticed they were fanning. The queen must be here. We gathered them up and placed them into the hive.
After the bees were dropped in, we added the top bars with comb attached…hoping they would stay attached once I hung them in the hive.
Top bars with old comb melted on. Quilt box in background
I had already built the sugar frame shown below.
1/2 inch hardware cloth will hold up sugar if using newsprint.
Premixed sugar laying on a couple sheets of blank newsprint for the Warre hive #2
We slid the sugar frame into place.
Sliding the sugar frame into place
Next comes the quilt box.
Top it off with the roof. Matt Reed of beethinking.com, you made a nice hive kit.
Bees flying orientation flights.
April 23…through the observation window we can watch the bees working. No new natural comb can be seen yet, but it won’t be long.
After I added a frame of sugar on top of the single brood box, October 25, 2012, I figured that would do it for the winter. But at the bee meeting in January, we were advised to keep feeding into the spring. It was important because the bees would be flying more and using up the last of the honey stores…if the weather was bad, they wouldn’t be able to fly and could starve and all our efforts would be wasted. Just to make sure I ask the natural beekeeping forum. I was advised to super another box.
We opened the hive on a sunny February day, adding more sugar on top of the brood box, then added an empty box on top. Inside the empty box hung a bit of comb on two top bars that measured about 2 inches (5 cm) down. I figured the bees would come through the slits, eat the sugar which would give them energy to build more comb.
Feb. 15, More sugar added. Slits cut through newsprint to allow bees access to sugar from bottom box. The chunks of sugar on the right of center was all that was left of the batch we placed in October.
February 17, 2013 Bees feeding on new sugar above brood box
The bees came up through the slits no problem, ate at the sugar, but stopped there. They would overnight on the sugar…soon it was covered in bees. They didn’t have any desire to build on the comb slightly above their heads. Meanwhile the bees were crowding out the single brood box.
March 3…This box is getting very crowded…
What to do??? Okay, here’s a plan…if they like the sugar so much, let’s place the sugar frame above the empty box. They’ll sniff out the sugar, climb up the comb to the sugar, and build out their comb.
March 9…Adding more sugar to the frame and placing it above top boxes
We waited a few days before we realized the bees were NOT going up to the sugar and certainly NOT building up more comb. Meanwhile the bees were getting even more crowded in the brood box.
I go back to the beekeeping forum and notice that Bernhard has added some info about using ‘ladders,’ along with some very excellent photos taken with his expensive macro lens.
Should I try to buy foundation for the Warre…I don’t want to use plastic in my ‘natural’ hive, and I don’t want to use wax that might carry disease, but I do have a bit of comb left over from a failed hive last year which had swarmed late, not queened successfully and was finished off by the wasps. I piece it together.
Comb ‘ladders’ attached to bars. This pathetic looking comb has been in the freezer for 4 to 5 months. I don’t have much left so I hope this will encourage them to climb upstairs.
March 24…Adding the first ladder
And the second ladder…”Honey, how about trimming the grass in front of the hive?”
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 