#apiary2022

It's hard to document beekeeping, even though I could share some really cool pics. Reasons include gloves, working alone, not wanting propolis & wax on phone, and needing to work quickly/carefully (that last especially applied to this job).

But here's where I started. They'd built significantly more comb since I first looked. The heavy-ass convertible ladder was a key player. I set up empty frames with rubber bands to put cut comb in, and that more or less worked, though I realized I really want wire backing for all of them in the future. If I have to do this again that is - maybe I won't! But it's a good skill to have.

I climbed up under the cluster, which was nice & calm, smoked them, and started carefully cutting each of those combs in turn. They were attached to the trap bottom, the supports, and the ratchet strap, so there was definitely no taking the whole thing down to work on it on the ground, even if I'd had help.

So I'd cut each one, check for the queen, and see what was in the comb. Mostly empty or only a little honey? Those I just put in the bottom on my empty box. The bees can move those stores elsewhere. The biggest combs, ones with a lot of nectar/pollen/honey, and ones with any brood, I banded into the frames and then set those in the box. New-built comb is fragile, so that was tricky.

Up and down the ladder each time, cut & carry, slowly & gently. I had an audience at first, from a distance, but as the cloud of flying bees around me got bigger & louder, they went back inside. I had extra veils in case anyone asked, but not sleeves/gloves/suit, and nobody was that brave anyway.

So I got all the comb cut off and put in my empty swarm trap, either rubber banded into frames or set on the floor. I hadn't seen the queen, though she'd be easy enough to miss in the mass of bees. For the smaller pieces of remaining comb, I brought a bucket up & scraped them off into it.

Next I took the trap up there down, and found there weren't any bees in it at all, save a few wandering around. I thought the colony might have been split btw inside & outside, but no, they missed the mark entirely when "moving in".

Now back up the ladder with the bucket to brush as many loose bees as I could into it, then dump them into their new home. As I started brushing, I spotted the queen! Queens do stand out, but also she's marked. A yellow paint dot on her thorax means a) she's a '22 model, and b) I'm definitely catching someone else's stray swarms, not ferals. I had my queen-catching clip ready, & glad I did instead of just dumping her with the rest! Don't want to injure a queen, and also it meant I could be sure she stayed where I put her, safe & sound in the box with the comb.

The bees are doing well. The two small hives at the far end - late swarms both - will need significant help to get through the winter, and I'll probably downsize them both into nuc boxes*, but they both still have laying queens, so I don't want to combine them if they can get through to spring as is. I started reducing the three strong hives so they don't have too much space, but ran out of time to do the biggest one, since I didn't get out there until late in the day.

I'll need to get back out there soon to get better feeder setups on the small ones, and get that middle hive reduced down. The three are nice & heavy.

*Which reminds me of the idea I had for converting existing deep equipment into double nucs for overwintering colonies like this. It would be 4 frames on each side, or 5 in one and 4 in the other, to allow space for the divider. The entrances would be on opposite sides, probably a hole drilled in the end board, so the whole thing would need a specialized bottom board (though it could just be something solid, nailed on). Divided lid, too (maybe just flat boards), so you could access one at a time, and space for top feeding on each side.