I have been away from bee duties for much of the last week building a large run for our chickens to keep them out of this years garden. Along with finishing that up, two swarm traps were deployed Trap01 and Trap10. Trap01 is in a promising untested spot, and Trap10 a reliable place that caught two colonies last year.
Loaded traps ready to go out this weekend. My lilac bush is blooming in the background inside the new chicken run.
Several other traps were readied for deployment this weekend and have been staged on our outdoor garden sink. I have been following a thread in the forums over at beesource.com – Please Post your Swarm Dates. There have been swarms reported in Indiana so traps need to be up. If you are interested in trapping swarms or getting prepared to retrieve them, that thread is a useful tool. There are knowledgeable and helpful people involved with the beesource forums so be sure to check it out.
The new hive stand I will be testing this year. I have high hopes for them.
Lastly I am experimenting with a new type of hive stand this year. My cousin Jarret introduced it to me. His grandfather has been making and using them for many years. They seem to be very stable, and amazingly heavy for only being about 11 inches tall, 18 inches wide, and 26 inches long. The treated lumber to make twelve of them cost $95.97 plus tax at Menards this morning. It’s a fair amount of money, but that figures to $8 per stand which seems cheap enough to me. The wood is all cut, and three of them are assembled. Thank you Jarret for the e-mail with the dimensions and pictures.
So are you ready and waiting for Spring? Let me know…..
That is a pretty good price for a couple hive stands. They sound tried and true if the grandpa had been making and using them for years.
There have been swarm reports in my area, but the weather got all rainy, windy, and cold again, so we’ll see. I hope to get at least one swarm this year.
I am getting excited about those hive stands. We will have to see what happens to them a couple of years after they have been setting out, but initially I am confident that they are stable. I still cannot get over how heavy they are.
I would hope you could get at least one swarm. Do you give your name and number to Pest Control places near where you live? I have picked up a couple of swarms that way. People see a swarm of bees and their first instinct is to have someone come try to kill them…. I hand out sheets of paper this time of year that have a picture of a “HONEY”Bee, my name, and my phone number on them. I give them to the police dispatches as well as pest control places. Basically anyone I think might get a call about a swarm of bees or bees in a structure.
We need to get you some free bees!!!