CHECKING TRAPS JULY 2021/CAPPING SWARMS/LIME GROVE
Catching stray swarms is a common way to grow an apiary without serious investment. It would seem so, but not everything is so simple.
Let's start with how to catch them.
A trap is prepared in advance - this is a small and light hive, with a capacity of 4 frames and a large under-frame space. Old frames with dry bees are placed inside, covered with propolised canvas. In mid-May, they are hung on separately growing and strong trees. They are fastened high enough so that the trap does not catch the eye of random people. An important point is the choice of location, it is better to hang it within a radius of 2-4 kilometers from large apiaries or a cluster of small ones. The larger the apiary, the more difficult it is to control swarming.
You can hang up 2 or 30 traps, some of them will work several times per season, others will be empty or, even worse, stolen, which is also not uncommon.
But a beginner will probably be unlucky, you need to know where to put them, and no one will share such information with you.
You can expect to catch, say, 10 swarms. And you can even catch them, but some of them will be small, and they will have to be combined. And you will not achieve your goal. Or you may not catch anything during the season. Or catch it late, for example, in August and you will have to feed the family.
Did you know that bees suffer from many diseases?
Most are transmitted to other bees, it is enough to sit on one flower. They can bring drones from another family, I already wrote that drones are accepted by any bee family. Or the Queen can bring from the mating flight.
And so, the happy ones brought a sick swarm to the apiary, transplanted or united... the bees are flying. You work with all the families with one chisel, one brush, move frames from one hive to another...
Next summer, diseases will begin to appear, some will go on in a latent mode for another 3-4 years and then at one moment they will mow down the entire apiary. Other diseases will immediately make themselves known, and if you are an adequate beekeeper, a long and expensive treatment with serious drugs begins. A sick family will not give commercial honey.
And do not think that in your area there are no diseases such as foulbrood. Today maybe not, but tomorrow? No one will tell you about this.
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