Thank you Susan Rudniki

[Dodie (Dorothea) Hamilton-John]

Hi Susan, Just wanted to let you know, that I went home and installed the swarm into my top bar hive. Everything looked great! The workers were stringing a chain from the top bar, and I thought, o.k. they are happy! Went to bed, got up at 7AM and saw that there wasn’t any activity around the hive. I peeked into the observation window, and there wasn’t a single bee in the hive! I went to work so sad. When I came home around 6PM, I went out to the backyard a looked up at the empty hive…. What’s this? Bees happily flying in and out of the hive. Checked the observation window again…the whole swarm was back in the hive. I think a scout bee said,”Hey, it’s this hive, or the hollow log, I think that we should take the hive.” Have you ever heard of bees leaving and then returning? Thank you for the swarm! Love Dodie

[susan rudnicki]

Yes, I have heard of it, but have not experienced it myself. I can never know the situation of these boxed swarms delivered to me by Sam and Wendy. They are NOT beekeepers—they know little about bees. They have a business removing swarms for callers for a $125 fee, they do it during daylight hours (not my pick of timing, since you lose scout bees and the cluster is not as quiet) They gather the bees and box them and I know there have been times when the swarm was queen-less—either because they lost her or the queen was gone when they took the swarm. Everyone must remember this—I don’t guarantee you get a queen and when other people do the work, it is more likely to go wrong.

[Eric Young]

I want to give my thanks to Susan also. I picked up my swarm just last week, and I have been worried to death that my bees will leave. So far I still see a few each day and all seems well. I will feel a lot better in a couple of weeks and I can see a lot of comb.

Thanks again,

[susan rudnicki]

A tip that I have used with new swarms in new boxes—I think Ray told me about this—buy a plastic queen excluder, cut with heavy scissors a piece of the screeen to fit over your entrance space and tape in place with duct tape. Leave it for a week. This allows the workers to come and go but prevents the queen leaving. By that time, the drawn comb and eggs will keep the colony at home, and you can take it off. Remember, the drones also can’t go through the excluder, so check it all the time to make sure drones are not piling up behind your piece of screen and clogging it. Some swarms have drones in them, some not many.

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