Out in the Bee Yard

Bill Holmes 
 

At the end of February, I was checking the hives for an active queen. I only needed to look at the top deep since the bees had all moved up. Yellow hive did not show any eggs or brood in the top, but I didn’t want to disturb things at that time by digging into the lower deep. There was also little I could do if I did find a problem. It wasn’t until April 6th that I finally got to a thorough inspection. Uh oh, queenless, nothing going on and getting low on bees. I consolidated the bees to one box and then took 3 frames of eggs and larvae from another hive who wouldn’t miss them. I would let them raise their own queen or go down trying. I wasn’t buying a queen. Next day I got to thinking maybe all those old bees can’t care for those three frames so I went over to my crazy happening purple hive and found the queen in the lower deep. Put the upper back on and removed 2 frames full of nurse bees and shook them into yellow. Ok now they have a chance. Next week I go back to see if they started a queen cell. They hadn’t, because there was a queen walking around and laying eggs. I inadvertently shook her into the depressed yellow hive and made my awesome hive queenless. How could she switch boxes so quickly? I guess I am thankful they accepted her and didn’t kill her. Good news is now purple won’t be swarming this year. And that queen is turning yellow around, I have already had to add an upper deep to give her room. Purple hive has supercedure cells so hopefully I should have a laying queen by next week. Beekeeping is at least interesting. 

Last year I put out 2 bait hives and captured 5 swarms. That was a rather good year, it isn’t always like that. The boxes can be simple and not follow all the rules or they can be something you put a lot of effort into building a perfect enticement for the scouts. The trap to the left, I believe is the best design, especially if you are going to deploy several of them in outlying locations. They only require 5 frames, are easy to handle on ladders, easy to attach to a tree, and can be left unattended for a while without the bees creating a mess. These would have the interior length and width of a nuc (7 ½ X 18 ⅜) but be 17 ¾ inches deep which would give 40 L of volume. The design gives the arriving swarm someplace to go to work while giving the scouts an empty cavity below the frames to do their math. 

But since I only put the traps out in my yard and I don’t want to spend any money, I just use a regular 10 frame Langstroth deep hive bodies which are 46 Liters. But why am I concerned with volume and other trap attributes? Tom Seeley in his book Honey Bee Democracy presented the results of his research into what scouts prefer when looking for a suitable cavity.  He found that nest sites with the following characteristics were most successful: Height about 15 feet, well shaded but highly visible, a circular entrance 1 ¼ “ diameter, south facing, cavity volume about 40 Liters, and it should have the odor of beeswax. 
That should be your guide, but they are statistics and averages. Bees will move into the best cavity they have available. One of my traps is on the side of a shed facing north, shaded, and the entrance is about 7’ above the ground. The other is on a fence about 5’ high and facing south with plenty of sun. One caught 3 last year and the other 2.  
I took both these pictures today, May 1 and both have a scout in the picture. Since I began typing this article the shed box now has dozens of scouts, frenetic and buzzing about the entrance. Something could be imminent on that one, but sometimes they go silent leaving no clue as to what turned them away.  

Most beekeepers recommend adding a frame of old brood comb. But don’t fill out the rest of the box with foundation because scouts measure the cavity and don’t see the foundation as volume. They would interpret your box as too small.  Leaving it empty though will encourage the scouts but you’ll end up with comb built every which way inside and then you’ll have a very difficult time getting the bees and comb into a regular box of frames. I compromise by adding one frame of blank foundation, then two frames with 2” of starter foundation at the top, then fill out the rest of the box with blank frames. That gives them 4 frames to work with before I transfer them. 
 I have used regular bottom boards before but prefer the 1 ¾” spacer shown with a solid bottom. I have a 1 ⅜” entrance hole with a nail driven through the middle to keep the birds from setting up a home. The entrance can be closed with the screened block when it’s time to move them. I have used lemongrass essential oil as a lure scent in the past and had success, but I bought some swarm commander and it appears to be even more effective. It’s spendy but it lasts for many seasons. I would not buy the ebay knockoff of swarm commander. 

Once a swarm has moved into your box leave it alone for a week. If you start messing with it sooner, you just might convince your free bees they made a terrible mistake and leave. You’ll know they moved in if you check in the morning and you have bees just coming and going. Some beeks look for full pollen baskets to indicate a swarm has arrived because scouts don’t carry pollen. But they may not begin to bring pollen in for a couple of weeks. When you are ready to move them, wait until after dark to lock them up, then you can move them in the morning when it is light out. Moving the bees to their hive stand is a bit complicated because they think their home is where you caught them. The best thing to do is move them 3 miles away for 3 weeks and then move them to where you want them in your yard. Other approaches such as locking them up for 48 hours or putting brush in front of the entrance to convince them to reorient will lose some bees back to the trap site. I prefer taking them 3 miles away. Then the next day, transfer any frames they are working on into a new hive body and fill the box with blank foundation and add a regular bottom board. Then I can take the swarm trap home and redeploy it. 

Swarm season is upon us and will go on until the end of June. Luring bees to your traps not only gives you some free bees but keeps them from possibly moving into a neighbor’s eves.  

Thanks to everyone who filled out the PNW honey bee loss survey, last I heard we had 21 respondents with a week to go.

Bill