Disclaimer:

This blog explains how I keep bees. It works for me, it might not work for you. Use my methods at your own risk. Always wear protective clothing and use a smoker when working bees.

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Saturday, July 7, 2012

Swarming because of the heat

swarm under the eaves

knocked down and moving in

bees fanning the homing odor of the nasnov gland
The high heat that has been upon us lately has kicked swarming back up. I have had several swarm calls the last two days.
 I picked up this swarm in the 100+ heat on Friday. Of course I had a full bee suit in my car not my jacket. Just to make the event more memorable.
The bees had been in the house through eaves that were rotted and had holes in them. The high heat drove them back out to for under the eave. I crawled up with my box and a broom. I removed some frames and held the box up as high as I could with one hand and swiped them with a broom with the other hand, knocking them into the hive box. There was still many bees hanging in a cluster under the eave. I set down the box and swiped the cluster with the broom knocking the bees down into the box and onto the roof. The black roof in the sun was over 160 degrees F. Because I put my hand on it climbing up there with the box and burned my hand. The bees that landed on the black roof moved into the box very quickly. I guess the hot roof helped the decision to go into the box.
 Went back to the swarm at 8 pm last night (with my bee jacket ) and all the bees had gone down to the box. Being that it was still in the upper 90's the bees were covering the front of the box, too hot for them to totally go in. There were so many bees on the front of the box that I couldn't see any white paint of the box. To bad I left my camera at home. My plan is to retrieve them on Sat evening around 8:45 pm and add them to a weak colony.