swarm-list Mailing List: Re: Swarm in one of my hives in East Oakland

[Christine Hyung-Oak Lee (christine.zilka]

I can’t help with the swarmBUT if you can’t figure out the queen cell situation in the origin hive, one way to prevent it from swarming to death is to add a box of empty frames pronto. Without physically inspecting the hive, my general advice would be to put that box of empty frames so that it ends up the second box from the top.

If I were to inspect, I’d find where the brood is, and set an empty box of frames above the brood whether that is the top box or second from the top. 

Thst should keep the bees busy enough thst they don’t swarm themselves over and over. Every hive situation has its variables, though and yes rhe best practice would be to go in and see what’s going on and add room in a more precise manner and/or make a split now and take a frame of queen swarm cells along with bees and resources 3+ frames of brood, 1+ frame of pollen, 2A+ frames of honey and put them in a new hive setup so you end up with two hives even if that swarm moves along. And to again, ensure the hives don’t swarm and swarm. 

Again bottom line making sure there is room to grow inthe origin hive in the space alongside the brood. 

Christine

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Christine Hyung-Oak Lee

http://www.christinehlee.com/

Substack: Cuddle Fish

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On Tue, Mar 18, 2025 at 11:41 AM seh-reum via swarm-list <swarm-list [at] alamedabees.org> wrote:

The swarm has has landed up in a tree maybe 20 ft high in front of our house 

We have our bait hive set up and sprayed some lemongrass oil on it and are giving a little time for the small clusters to settle into one but if you are available would love some support as it's my first time doing this! Jerry recommended taking a look at the parent hive and seeing what to do with the queen cells to prevent another swarm which I don't really know how to do yet either

On Tue, Mar 18, 2025, 11:19 seh-reum <universaltideshifter [at] gmail.com> wrote:

Hi everyone this is Seh-reum who reached out a little while back about moving a hive here to our home. We did so successfully at the time and the hive has been doing well so far but this morning began swarming. We do already have another setup ready to receive new bees, but as I have never caught a swarm before I would love support from anyone available!

Feel free to call me 4152835390

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