It took a little doing - especially since not everything worked out the way we had planned exactly.
We were going to put one more nuc on the roof off Dolores park, and use packages for the other hive in the original location and the new hive on our friend Brad's roof. The same woman who had sold us the first two nucs this year had another hive she wanted to split.
Friday morning we went to her house to pick up the nuc. When we arrived she was in her back yard already and we were ushered through her house by her cleaner. We entered the back yard to find her trying to entice a swarm into one of several nucs and swarm traps that she had about.
We watched the swarm with her for a bit as it settled on her neighbors' fence. She explained to us that the best way to catch a swarm if you can act as it is happening is to use lemongrass oil to entice them into a box, which is what she was attempting to do.
We left the swarm to find its way to the nuc, and went to look at the hive to be split. After examining the frames we quickly realized that the hive was queenless. There was no brood and no eggs to be found. We put that hive back together since we would not be able to use it for the split and our friend looked around her yard for another. The one we chose must have been just ready to swarm because the moment Deno opened it the bees went for it!
Now bees always fly about when you open their hive, naturally. However, this was a HUGE number of bees and they were making the high whiny sort of hum that is characteristic of a swarm. They were even starting to settle on some allium near the hive.
We began to put the hive back together because we could not make a split from it either. The queen would have left with the swarm.
Strangely, once the hive was closed again, the swarm quickly returned to it and went back in. The best we were able to surmise is that the hive was indeed getting ready to swarm, but was not really quite set to take off. However, when we opened the hive and some of the bees took flight, the others interpreted that as a signal to swarm and followed. Once the hive was closed and they realized that it was a false alarm they all returned to the hive.
Anyway, we did not get a split and so were unable to install the new hive in the Dolores location. We decided to fall back on one of the packages arriving Saturday instead and just let Brad know that his hive might have to wait until we could find another way to get a colony.
Saturday arrived and Deno grabbed a car so we could go pick up our two packages that were arriving. We had arranged with our friend who provides the original location to install the new hive that afternoon, but on a tight schedule. As luck would have it, the packages were late in being delivered so we had to wait for nearly an hour for them. Deno had to go drop off equipment at the Dolores location and return the car before we had a chance to pick up the packages.
Happily, another woman waiting with us for some packages of her own offered to take us home with our bees. We called our friend to let him know that we would have to delay until Sunday afternoon and let the owners of the Dolores location know that we would be by a little later than planned to put in the hive there.
Luck struck again and we read on the SF beekeepers list that there was a) an extra queen available, and b) a queenless swarm that someone had caught. Deno made some quick calls and sent some e-mails and we were soon in possession of both! These would make a fine third colony. We called our friend Brad and let him know that he would get the hive on his roof that weekend after all! Yeay!
We then focused on getting the first package installed on the roof by Dolores Park. Following is a short video of the package -- inside the mass of bees is a small cage with the queen and a can of sugar water with a drip feeder attached so the bees can eat while they are waiting to be put in their new home. The queen's cage entrance is plugged with a sugar paste candy that is very like dried icing. The new hive is set up and the bees are dumped in (rather unceremoniously). The queen, in her cage, is then suspended between two frames and the hive is closed up. The bees will eat the sugar paste because bees like sugar. It will take them a couple days to eat through enough of it that the queen can escape her cage and join the hive. In this time the rest of the bees will have become accustomed to her scent and hopefully accept her as their new queen. At the end of the video you see the new hive set up with some of the bees going in and out of the entrance (which is reduced to help the ward off intruders until their numbers are strong enough to be able to guard the full hive entrance). The jars in the top hive body are there to provide sugar water for the bees to eat so they can get a jump star on producing wax and making the comb so they don't have to rely solely on foraging for nectar and supplies while they get started.
On Sunday afternoon, the other package was installed in its new hive in our original location, and the swarm and the extra queen were installed on our friend's roof in the same manner, except in that case the bees did not have a can of sugar water to sustain them since they had been caught so they were a little more cranky when we installed them in their hive. Consequently they buzzed around quite a bit before they started to settle into the hive. However, Brad let us know the following day that they had all made it into their new home and were already peacefully exploring the neighbors fruit tree which is in full bloom.
Here we are on that roof while the bees try to find their sisters in their new hive.
Next week we'll have to make round to check on each of the new hives to see that the queens have all been released and are laying properly.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
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