(calm guitar music)
- This morning, we found this beautiful little swarm here
at the office.
I think they've probably absconded from one of these hives
we've got in the garden here.
For the most part, these are very docile
when they're swarming.
This is 'cause their tummies are full of honey,
and they're looking for a new home.
Even though they're quite docile,
we still need to take precautions
when we're handling the bees,
and keeping our suits on and our gloves,
just for our own safety.
If you get stung while you're handling a swarm,
you know, it might frighten you and you might drop
your swarm if you're holding on to it,
so you've got to be real careful that you've got
your gloves on.
Just keeping yourself nice and calm
keeps the bees nice and calm as well.
Most likely what's happened here is,
one of the hives has become overcrowded,
so the queen's taken off with some of her bees,
and they're looking for a nice new home.
We've got this nuc box here,
this is gonna be a temporary home for the swarm,
just until the colony expands,
and then we'll put them into a full-size brood box.
So what we're gonna do now is, we're gonna put this swarm
into its temporary home.
So we'll come down here.
I'm just going to open up the nuc box,
and what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna take out
three of these frames, just so we've got room
to shake the bees in.
Okay.
It's very important to make sure we get all these bees in,
and the queen in especially.
Otherwise, all the bees will abscond with the queen
wherever she goes.
So I'm gonna give these bees a nice shakedown, like so.
(bees clatter)
There we go.
Oh they're actually fairly quiet bees, these ones.
(bees buzz)
Okay.
I'm just gonna pop a few frames in here.
(bees buzz)
We still got a few bees on here,
so I really wanna get these in.
(bees clatter)
They're all stuck in the flowers.
Okay.
And we'll put the frames in.
(bees buzz)
I'm just going to close the lid and just check this,
just to make sure the queen isn't on here still.
Otherwise, they're all gonna come back to this flower.
I'm going to place this nice flower
at the front entrance here,
just so the bees that are left on there
can find their way in through the entrance
and into this nuc box.
And they've all left the flower,
so we know that they've all gone into the nuc box,
into their new home.
So this entrance hole here, this allows the worker bees
entry and exit without being able to let the queen out.
This next hole here, this will allow the queen out as well.
These holes over here, these are the ventilation holes,
and generally they're in place when the bees are in transit,
if you've bought your bees.
Okay, the bees seem to be gathering
at the back of the hive here,
so maybe the queen didn't get in when we shook her in.
So I'm just gonna have a little look and see
if we can see her anywhere.
(bees buzz)
'Cause they all seem to be on the outside of the box.
Look at them all flying around.
(bees buzz)
This may indicate that she isn't in the hive,
and they're swarming again.
Let's just have a look up here and see
if we can see where she's going.
(bees buzz)
So I spotted the queen again,
and noticed that she's swarmed onto a small branch
just behind me.
So what I've done is, I went and grabbed a box
from under the house and managed to catch the swarm
and put it into the box here.
So now we just need to transfer all the bees and the queen
back into the nuc hive.
So when I spotted the queen, I noticed she was really small,
small enough to actually fit through the queen excluder
at the front here,
so I've set the dial to ventilation.
This will keep the bees contained in the box
so they can settle for the evening.
So by the morning, I can turn the dial back around
to this one, then the bees will be able to come and go
in the morning,
And hopefully, by that time, they were settled in enough
to want to stay.
So in the box, I put a little bit of wax,
just off against a wall.
See all the bees on it?
Hopefully, this is going to help to keep the bees
to stay in there, and I've also got a little cap
of raw honey here, fresh from one of the hives.
So I'm going to put that in the bottom as well.
So, hopefully, that will entice them to stay in the hive.
One thing I forgot to do earlier was to put the nuc hive
onto a Besser block.
This, hopefully, will just keep the ants off the hive,
and any other little insects that might be around.
Okay, so I'm gonna move the nuc hive a little bit,
just so I can bring this Besser block over,
pop it into a position where we want it,
so it's relatively flat.
So I've turned the box around so it's facing
in a north-northeast direction for us here
in the southern hemisphere.
So I will pop a couple of frames inside.
And I've got my little lid of honey in the bottom,
so, hopefully, that will entice them to stay.
Okay, so I'm gonna open this box now.
I've got no idea what's going to happen.
Hopefully, they'll have settled,
'cause I've left them for a little while,
but we'll have a look and see, hey?
(tape tears)
I'm just placing it over here, just in case the queen
happens to be at the front somewhere.
(tape tears)
All right.
Oh, here we go.
Can you see that?
I might just give this a shake.
(bees buzz)
(bees clatter)
(bees buzz)
So, hopefully, we've got the queen this time,
'cause if the queen's in there,
then the bees will all stay in there.
(bees buzz)
What I'm gonna do is, I'm just gonna leave it here
for the day, and the bees will stay and hang around here
because they'll be able to smell the queen's pheromone.
So later on tonight, when it's dark,
I'm gonna open up the little dial at the front
so the bees can come and go,
so all the bees here, they'll head on into this nuc box
where the queen is.
These nuc hives aren't very expensive
and you can buy them online,
and they're really a good idea to have at home
because, once swarm season does come around,
you've got one handy and ready to go, just in case
your bees swarm, or you might even see a swarm
in your tree in your garden.
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