holding a swarm?

[rober]

i caught my 1st swarm of the year yesterday evening. it is the size of a large cantelope. it was an easy catch as they'd attached themselves to some loose bark on  stump about 5' off of the ground. i have a 3.5 gallon plastic bucket with a kazzillion holes drilled in it & a screened lid that i put them in. it was dark when i got home & very cool & it was raining so i put the bucket on top of some hive bodies full of drawn out frames thinking the odor from the comb would help keep them calm. they are indoors & warm & looked to be fine this morning. since it's still raining here how long can i hold them like this? i did spray a little water on the screen.

[blanc]

SO you did not do a shake in the hive body with them and just have them sitting on top to lure them in themselves? I would think evetually they will make a move somewhere unless otherwise helped but what I know. Just a second year beek still learning here and teachable.  :roll:
Blanc

[rober]

no, they were in a ventilated bucket with a screened lid in my basement. it was raining last night & this morning so i was unable to hive them until  the sun finally showed itself late this afternoon. i found & marked the queen, put them in a single brood box with i frame of old brood since i do not have any fresh brood to spare. i gave them 2 frames of honey & the rest is drawn out comb. i also put some lemon grass oil in the hive. i blocked the entrance to the screened bottom board & put a screened migratory cover on top with a spacer for the outer cover for ventilation. i'm keeping them on lock-down for 24-36 hours. last year i had 2 swarms that  after being hived were gone the next morning. i'd still like to know how long i could have kept them in the bucket in my basement & what should have been done to care for them while they were there.

[hardwood]

If they're cool enough you can keep them like that for at least several days. Wait very long though and you'll have to do a cut out.

Scott

[rober]

it's been unusually cool here. it's slowing down queen rearing, mating flights, honey flows. this should be the peak of morel season here but it's been too cool for them too. i've not seen a single mushroom. the weather has not effected the ticks though!!
 now that they are hived how long is it safe to keep them on lockdown? as stated they have a screened bottom board & ventilated inner cover.

[hardwood]

They still need cleansing flights. I once shut a cell starter hive (inadvertently) for the full 10 days and they ended up with dysentery.

Scott

[rober]

it's cool & the hive is well vented. i'm thinking of releasing them tomorrow morning that would be 36 hours. hopefully they will be inclined to stay. it was disapponting last year when the 2 largest swarms that i caught were gine the morning. i will spray some water on the migratory screen.

[WarPonyFarms]

Queen excluders are wonderful things. 

If you put one on the bottom of the box the bees can still take care of their business but won't swarm without the queen.  When I catch swarms I'll give them a couple frames of drawn comb and leave an excluder in place until I see they have brood in the cells.  Has worked well for me.

[rober]

i put an excluder on the bottom board & put a feeder in an empty box on top of the inner cover. how long before i can expect to see some brood?

[tefer2]

A frame of open brood sure smells like home. Gives the nurse bees something to do also.

[rober]

i have no brood to spare. i got a used queen from a friend who requeened his hive & saved my only hive that survived the winter. i'll requeen that hive as soon as queens are available but this cool weather has slowed down the local breeders. meanwhile between the cool weather & a semi retired queen there's not a lot of brood to be had in my yard.

[Michael Bush]

>i have no brood to spare.

It only takes one, or even a partial one and you can pay it back in a week or two if you like.  eggs and very young brood are not much of an investment, where older brood and capped brood are.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespanacea.htm

[rober]

i went thru 'the hive' today & there were 3 frames of capped brood & 2 partial frames of capped brood.  no new brood. we just had 3 cool & rainy that slowed down any new laying. i'll check again in a few days i'm going to call the friend who retired this queen & see what her history is. she's doing a pretty good job. i'll need at least 2 frames of brood since i hived another nice sized swarm today. it was close to a gallon of bees. i'm probably jinxing myself here but 2 swarms in a row that did not require a ladder is not hard to take.