Thanks, Tandy Beth! We're looking forward to using our new refractometer when we harvest honey this year. We went up to your neck of the woods for the solar eclipse last month. We went to Paducha, KY and then crossed the Mississippi River into MO. Thanks again for your support!
Hi Roy and Shirley, thank you for the video. I caught a Wild Bee Swarm in June 2023. This was the beginning of a new challenge, how to work with the bees. My bees have a “comfortable pied à terre” in a Layens Horizontal Hive in my backyard. I recently performed my first inspection of the Layens Horizontal Hive (video is on my channel) the bee colony survived the winter without any problems. I do not use any treatment or supplemental feeding for my bees. I am very happy that the family of backyard beekeepers is growing thanks to beekeepers like you.
Sounds like you're off to a good start. We recommend that you have 2 hives in case you need to "borrow" resources. If something happens to your queen, you can move a frame of eggs from one hive to another so they can make a new queen. You can prop up a weak colony with resources from a strong one. But be careful not to waste resources on one that's too far gone to save. We're struggling with that one. Good luck with your bees!
We have not. A couple of years ago we had a swarm land in a bush in our yard about 10 ft from an empty hive. There were scout bees looking at the hive but the swarm went to a bush. We used a couple of frames with foundation on them to scoop the bees out of the bush and put them in the hive. And they stayed. We've never baited a hive either.
If you have a frame of old brood comb in your swarm trap, the queen has somewhere to begin laying almost immediately. I believe the cell is capped around day 9. So you could easily see capped brood within a couple of weeks. If your swarm came with a virgin queen, it can take up to a month.
Hey you all. I am not that far from you. I have a few questions for you. 1 are you still catching swarms? And if so how long do you leave your traps out? 3 do you ever move your traps and if so how long do you wait before you move them? I had only one trap where there was any interest for a day, then the bees left. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Just caught one yesterday in central NC near Alamance. We usually leave the swarm in the box a couple of weeks but not more than 3. A strong swarm will fill a swarm box in a month and be ready to swarm again. We have not been moving our traps. All the books say to put your swarm traps along a tree line (bees navigate straight whenever they can hence the term bee-line), up about 10-14 ft high, baited with lemongrass essential oil, propolis and some old brood comb. The scout bees are looking for about a 10-gal volume home - the size of the 7-frame Layens swarm trap. We've had just as much luck in our 6-frame plywood Layens traps. The main tip is to put them up early. We usually put ours up near the end of February. We caught our 1st swarm this year on Easter Sunday. We put up 4 swarm traps near our house in Apex and caught 4 swarms. We put 5 up around our friend John's farm and have caught 3. We have 2 up in the northwestern NC mountains and haven't caught anything there yet.
I’m so glad y’all are doing so well with the swarms!! 👏🏼😁
Thanks, Tandy Beth! We're looking forward to using our new refractometer when we harvest honey this year. We went up to your neck of the woods for the solar eclipse last month. We went to Paducha, KY and then crossed the Mississippi River into MO. Thanks again for your support!
Hi Roy and Shirley, thank you for the video.
I caught a Wild Bee Swarm in June 2023. This was the beginning of a new challenge, how to work with the bees.
My bees have a “comfortable pied à terre” in a Layens Horizontal Hive in my backyard.
I recently performed my first inspection of the Layens Horizontal Hive (video is on my channel) the bee colony survived the winter without any problems.
I do not use any treatment or supplemental feeding for my bees.
I am very happy that the family of backyard beekeepers is growing thanks to beekeepers like you.
Sounds like you're off to a good start. We recommend that you have 2 hives in case you need to "borrow" resources. If something happens to your queen, you can move a frame of eggs from one hive to another so they can make a new queen. You can prop up a weak colony with resources from a strong one. But be careful not to waste resources on one that's too far gone to save. We're struggling with that one. Good luck with your bees!
Shirley gets to be the boss near the end instead of Ralph.
It's about time, right? Ha ha!
Have you ever had a swarm go directly to a hive box instead of a swarm box?
We have not. A couple of years ago we had a swarm land in a bush in our yard about 10 ft from an empty hive. There were scout bees looking at the hive but the swarm went to a bush. We used a couple of frames with foundation on them to scoop the bees out of the bush and put them in the hive. And they stayed. We've never baited a hive either.
How long do you think it will be before you see capped brood in the newly caught swarm?
If you have a frame of old brood comb in your swarm trap, the queen has somewhere to begin laying almost immediately. I believe the cell is capped around day 9. So you could easily see capped brood within a couple of weeks. If your swarm came with a virgin queen, it can take up to a month.
Hey you all. I am not that far from you. I have a few questions for you. 1 are you still catching swarms? And if so how long do you leave your traps out? 3 do you ever move your traps and if so how long do you wait before you move them? I had only one trap where there was any interest for a day, then the bees left. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Just caught one yesterday in central NC near Alamance. We usually leave the swarm in the box a couple of weeks but not more than 3. A strong swarm will fill a swarm box in a month and be ready to swarm again. We have not been moving our traps. All the books say to put your swarm traps along a tree line (bees navigate straight whenever they can hence the term bee-line), up about 10-14 ft high, baited with lemongrass essential oil, propolis and some old brood comb. The scout bees are looking for about a 10-gal volume home - the size of the 7-frame Layens swarm trap. We've had just as much luck in our 6-frame plywood Layens traps. The main tip is to put them up early. We usually put ours up near the end of February. We caught our 1st swarm this year on Easter Sunday. We put up 4 swarm traps near our house in Apex and caught 4 swarms. We put 5 up around our friend John's farm and have caught 3. We have 2 up in the northwestern NC mountains and haven't caught anything there yet.
@@randsbees Thank you. I am near Robbins. so I am quite close.
@@myrondavid8435 That is pretty close to us. Good luck!