an easy swarm

my friend, Bryce, made a video while we collected a swarm yesterday. if the wardrobe changes confuse you, it's because he edited video from two days together. some from last week when we headed out only to get a disappointing telephone call, and some from yesterday when we were successful. the bit at the end showing us hiving the bees (and some minor brutalization thereof) was also last week. please note that I may well have gotten some facts wrong concerning the color of short pants and honey bee scouting behavior, and I sincerely apologize if that is the case.

That looks like an oversized Warre hive built out of 2x6's... Is that correct? Have you used hives like that before? How does it work? How heavy are those combs when you harvest?

Tom OHern wrote:That looks like an oversized Warre hive built out of 2x6's... Is that correct? Have you used hives like that before? How does it work? How heavy are those combs when you harvest?

it's built to Oscar Perone's design. sometimes called an Automatic Hive. and yes, it is built largely out of 2x6s. trying the design out for the first time this year. the bees seem to be doing pretty well so far, though I do wish I had built windows into the hives.

Loved the video! So relaxed and casual around the bees....I never could seem to be quite so relaxed around mine. Guess that comes with time and experience....

Wonderful way to get a new hive of bees going...FREE. I love that word!

Jay Green wrote:Loved the video! So relaxed and casual around the bees....I never could seem to be quite so relaxed around mine. Guess that comes with time and experience....

I attribute my comfort around the bees to not doing anything that bothers them. rest assured that I am veiled and gloved when I'm doing a cutout.

Jay Green wrote:Wonderful way to get a new hive of bees going...FREE. I love that word!

hard to beat the price, though it does involve being on call on any sunny day for a couple of months. I'm trying to move toward putting up a whole lot more bait hives rather than relying on swarm calls.

felt a little bad in this case, since it was a new beekeeper's new colony of Italian bees that swarmed. when he's ready for another hive, I'll offer him a swarm.

Hey Tel, how'd the hive do over the winter?

Cj Verde wrote:Hey Tel, how'd the hive do over the winter?

there are actually two swarms in the video: the one collected, and the one hived. both are doing quite well.

Tell me about the cloth on the top. I've read that you need to make a flour paste to keep the bees from eating it, but it didn't look like you did that.

Will you add some dowels or other support structure to support the brood area comb in that Perone hive?

Jerry Ward wrote:Tell me about the cloth on the top. I've read that you need to make a flour paste to keep the bees from eating it, but it didn't look like you did that.

I use whole rye flour paste. mostly out of habit. applied long before the swarm arrived.

Patrick Mann wrote:Will you add some dowels or other support structure to support the brood area comb in that Perone hive?

nope. that particular hive started building from the floor up, so they won't need any additional support. in others, I generally stick a branch or two in there that fit diagonally across the space, but I haven't found it to be necessary. might be more important in really hot places, but it just seems to interrupt things a bit here.

Awesome video, Tel!

learned quite a bit, thanks.