3.0 PRACTICE OF BEEKEEPING
The candidate will be:
3.24 able to describe how to take a honeybee swarm and how to hive it;
NOTES
Swarms should be persuaded into a suitable receptacle, left to congregate there, then sealed up and moved to a prepared hive.
Traditionally, suitable receptacles were straw skeps. A stout cardboard box is a suitable alternative. The container should have some ventilation, i.e. make some small holes in the cardboard box.
How to persuade the bees into the receptacle depends on where the bees have settled in their swarm. If they are on a convenient branch they can be shaken smartly or the vegetation cut so they fall into the container. It helps to have a sheet or similar spread on the ground. The container can then be inverted onto the sheet and propped open slightly. If you have caught the majority of the bees, and especially the queen, the others will follow shortly. When as many bees as possible are in, wrap it up in the sheet and take it to the apiary.
If the bees are on a hard fixed object like a post or wall then you can try to move them into the container by smoking from underneath or brushing . The theory is that the bees will always move upwards into a dark space.
In the apiary prepare a hive and frames of foundation – a swarm will readily draw out new wax.
The beekeeping spectacle is to prepare a ramp up to the hive entrance, lay the sheet on the ramp, pick up the receptacle and throw the bees onto the sheet in the direction of the hive. The bees will then march up the ramp into their new home.
A quicker version is to have an empty brood body and dump the bees straight in. Carefully lower the frames onto the mass of bees. A precaution here would be to block the entrance in case the queen spills out in the melee.