April: Boone Regional Beekeepers - swarm capture field day (1)

Our April meeting will be an in person swarm capture field day!

Sunday, April 24, 2022 at 2:00 pm.

Topics will cover the population dynamics that drive honey bee colonies to swarm. We will demonstrate and discuss capturing swarms in bait traps and in open field situations, how to lure bees into traps, where to deploy traps, and how to best place bees into hives.

Background reading:

Dr. Leo Sharashkin who lives in southern Missouri has provided comprehensive information about swarms and swarm trapping on his website.  Especially note his suggestions about where to place and how to bait swarm traps.

http://horizontalhive.com/honeybee-swarm-trap/bait-hive-how-to-catch.shtml.

He also has excellent plans for building swarm traps.

Dr. Thomas Seeley’s classic EXCELLENT publication about swarm trapping is here:  https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/2653.  Seely is the swarm guru so his other publications and books are very informative.

Agenda and presenters:

• George & Anna - Hive inspections
• Tom Coudron - swarm biology and colony decision making
• All - prevention of swarming
• swarm boxes / bait hives and other swarm traps
• All - how to manage successful captures (verify queen presence, length of time to leave in trap, transferring to hive box)
• Carl Korschgen and ALL - capture of swarms in bushes/trees and on structures
• All - swarm capture and retention
• All - Bring you favorite and unique swarm capture techniques and gadgets to demonstrate.
• Equipment construction: stations will be setup for members to assemble their equipment using the club's equipment

Please dress appropriately to work with bees

Please contact us at booneregionalbeekeepers@gmail.com with any questions!