Honey Bee Swarm in the Boulder area ?
Bee Relocation !
call (720) 722 4141 🐝
For folks in Boulder County who want to help the bees, Restore Colorado will relocate honey bee swarms. Unlike exterminators, we bring swarms to one of our sanctuaries where they will be used for education and pollination.
Bee Relocation !
call (720) 722 4141 🐝
For folks in Boulder County who want to help the bees, Restore Colorado will relocate honey bee swarms. Unlike exterminators, we bring swarms to one of our sanctuaries where they will be used for education and pollination.
How to Make & Use a Swarm Box
An illustrated guide to aquiring free bees using a swarm box
Instead of chasing swarms of bees, let them come to you! All you need is:
- A deep, ten-frame hive body or an approximately 10 gallon box
- A bit of lemongrass essential oil
- Old honeycomb
Bees like wood and stuff that smells like bees. They will also come to adobe chambers, house roofs, inside your walls, big flower pots, chests of drawers and more.
A good height for your swarm box is 15-20 feet off the ground, and southeast facing. It should be covered with a leafy branch or in a tree. Dappled shade is perfect:
A good height for your swarm box is 15-20 feet off the ground, and southeast facing. It should be covered with a leafy branch or in a tree. Dappled shade is perfect:
The swarm box in this tree is on a rope so no climbing is necessarily. However it is harder to keep level so don’t let them get too established unless you want the swarm box to be part of their permanent hive. Some say swarm boxes should be placed at least 1500 feet away from existing hives if you wish to collect your own bee’s swarms. But bees coming from further away won't mind moving in near other bees.
Building a Swarm Box
Materials:
- A deep, ten-frame hive body or an approximately 10 gallon box
- A bit of lemongrass essential oil
- Old honeycomb
Drill one, two or three 1 1/4" holes as entrances. The lemongrass oil is worked into beeswax and stuck on the frames or sticks and entrance holes.
Strips can be melted into place with beeswax and a soldering iron or simply with a beeswax candle. They can be built in any dimension.
Solder any cracks with beeswax so no light can enter except through the entrances. You can also water proof potential leaks this way. This is unnecessary if all joints are reasonably tight and the top is leak proof. That said, the bees will propalize any small gaps once they get established!
Solder any cracks with beeswax so no light can enter except through the entrances. You can also water proof potential leaks this way. This is unnecessary if all joints are reasonably tight and the top is leak proof. That said, the bees will propalize any small gaps once they get established!
Below is a variation on the people’s or Warre hive built with scrap plywood. The strips are placed to be flush with the roof and on 1 1/4" centers (8 spaced within a 12″ box). This gives them a place to build off of so they don’t attach to the top, since then it is much harder to put them into a new hive. Plans in metric and imperial for Warre boxes are freely available and can be sized for you specific needs or materials.
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Below is another variation with a 13" box using 2x6s. I used 1x2 tongue-and-groove as a ledge for the stick frames. This creates a nice groove to loosen the frames with a simple screw driver. The frames on this one are strips of old ceder roofing, and the box was old cedar deck!
This box is 12 x 12 x 24, but 12 x 12 x 'any length' will do, keeping in mind the approximately 10 gallon volume. The box is stackable and expandable once you get it out of the tree. Then there is no need to even transfer the bees. Make it with plywood on the top and bottom, and include frames with partially drawn comb, if you have them.
The Bees Have Arrived!
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When ready to move the bees to a new home, cover the entrances with window screen at night when it's dark and no bees are flying. Carefully bring the swarm box to its empty hive box in its new location. Make sure to keep them in the shade and bring them to their new place as soon as possible. If this takes a long time, you may need to spray the bees with some honey water.
Carefully move each frame above the new hive (in this case, the empty top bar pictured here). I had this empty top bar because the previous inhabitants did not make it through the winter but they left a lot of great comb and a bit of honey-- perfect for the new swarm.
And give it a gentle but firm shake:
Shake the box in and brush the last bees or let them walk in if it seems like the queen is inside already. Close up the hive and leave it alone for a few days. Then inspect it for eggs and brood. The first brood could be hatching as early as 3 weeks after hiving the swarm.
This one 3 months later is entirely filled with brood and honey!
How to Collect a Swarm Cluster (not in a swarm box)
These bees were more tricky as they never went into the box but started building comb on the bottom of the box. This large swarm was perhaps too large for a box of this size.
I was able to shake them into a mesh bag and lower them out of the tree without many of them taking flight. A basket or a box with a lid will also work. Then I brought them over to a new hive and shook them in with a firm but gentle shake.
Have fun and don't be afraid to wear protective gear until you are comfortable being stung! It makes the honey taste so sweet ;)
Print out the anarchy apiaries 2012 Beekeeping Survival Guide or go back to the section Bees to look up more resources on beekeeping and swarm boxes!
Print out the anarchy apiaries 2012 Beekeeping Survival Guide or go back to the section Bees to look up more resources on beekeeping and swarm boxes!
