I heard that bees gorged themselves with honey before swarming and so I'm confused as to why sugar water would be helpful in collecting a swarm?
Also, I saw someone in England collect a swarm using only a smoker which I thought induced the bees to gorge on honey and calmed them down. Of course they had already swarmed and didn't have access to honey so why did he use a smoker?
The reason I sprayed them with sugar water was to get their wings wet, so they wouldn't fly as much and would dump them into the hive box easier. A smoker is usually a bad idea. When you shake the bees into the box there are many airborne bees. The bees in the box will expose their nasnov gland and emit a homing odor. They fan their wings to get the odor into the air. A smoker will mask this odor and the flying bees will have a difficult time homing in on the swarm.
how many times have you been stung/ with all the killer bees out there it seems like its risky to get a colony from the wild...
dills2403 2 years ago
I live in Minnesota, there are no Africanized bees here.
I run 50 hives, i get stung about 10 times a season. Usually it was my fault for not wearing my protective equipment properly.
beefitter 2 years ago
I heard that bees gorged themselves with honey before swarming and so I'm confused as to why sugar water would be helpful in collecting a swarm?
Also, I saw someone in England collect a swarm using only a smoker which I thought induced the bees to gorge on honey and calmed them down. Of course they had already swarmed and didn't have access to honey so why did he use a smoker?
I'm confused, can anyone enlighten me?
yekic 2 years ago
The reason I sprayed them with sugar water was to get their wings wet, so they wouldn't fly as much and would dump them into the hive box easier. A smoker is usually a bad idea. When you shake the bees into the box there are many airborne bees. The bees in the box will expose their nasnov gland and emit a homing odor. They fan their wings to get the odor into the air. A smoker will mask this odor and the flying bees will have a difficult time homing in on the swarm.
beefitter 2 years ago
Comment removed
yekic 2 years ago
Poor cat!
s4xton 2 years ago