Another Swarm

A swarm in May is worth a load of hay
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon
A swarm in July isn't worth a fly
A swarm in August is worth a pint of sawdust
A swarm in September is something to remember
A swarm in October is rarely seen when sober
- Traditional Rhyme

Well I am certainly seeing somthing to remember this September - swarms a plenty!
Today I found a second small swarm hanging in a tree in my garden.

I had noticed a lot of buzzing around the garden bench, and looked up to see a swarm.

It must have been there a while before I noticed it, as when I shook the bees into a skep, I found that they had already started building comb on the branch of the tree and had covered a leaf in wax comb.

This time, after shaking the bees into a skep, I placed topbars over the top of the skep, and wrapped a piece of thick wire around from the bottom of the skep over the top bars to hold them in place, and left the skep under the tree until it began to get dark and all the bees were inside.

Then I wrapped it up in a sheet and put it in the shed. My plan is to move the skep to where the hive is going to go tomorrow, and leave the skep and bees there for a while. Once they have started to build comb on the topbars, they can be moved to a topbar nucleus hive, or a full size topbar hive.

27th September - I attempted to transfer the bees to a topbar nucleus hive, but they were reluctant to leave the skep. About half the bees were transferred, and I carefully placed the queen in when I spotted her. I left a small gap between a couple of topbars and put an inverted large yoghurt pot full of syrup on top, with small holes punctured in the lid to allow syrup to slowly drip out for the bees to collect. I couldn't then put the roof on the topbar hive, so I placed the skep over the yoghurt pot on top of the topbars, which also served the function of encouraging the rest of the bees to move down into the hive. With a little adjustment, a hole cut into the roof of the hive, and a shelter built around the hive, I now have a rustic combination skep/topbar hive which I'm quite pleased with.