August Swarm Catch from an open air colony

Got a call about a small swarm. When we got there, it wasn't a swarm, but instead an open colony in a tree that had been damaged by a storm. We rescued the bees and they are now in their new home. We will need to be diligent in order for them to have a chance at survival this winter.

[@RCsBigAir]

That’s pretty cool how you can save the swarms. Hopefully they can survive the winter. Keep the videos coming about how they are doing. Will be interesting to follow. Oh, and go Cougars!

[@BrookHillHoneyMrGsHoneybees]

Sadly, we inspected this colony last weekend and they took off (absconded). They were too weak to fight off my other colonies, so my other colonies were constantly raiding the box. I was sad to see them gone. My favorite part of beekeeping are the little colonies because it is so fascinating to see them grow so fast.

[@RCsBigAir]

Brook Hill Honey - Mr. G's Honeybees Well that stinks. Bummer to hear. Cool that you tried.

[@jumpoffa5011]

Was there a queen in that colony? Were you able to see where the combs came from?

[@BrookHillHoneyMrGsHoneybees]

We looked and looked in the trees for anything, and couldn't find any type of other comb or evidence where it was hanging in the trees. Lots of very large trees. We are going to inspect the colony soon and look for evidence of a queen. I could tell these bees were really traumatized - my guess is that they had been out in the rain for a couple of days, probably nearing starvation. I put them in a nuc and gave them sugar water. Hopefully they can survive the winter - lots of care taking ahead. I did see them bringing in pollen two days ago, so that gave me optimism. My favorite parts of beekeeping are catching swarms, and saving little colonies from sure death.

[@jumpoffa5011]

I hope they will survive too. Please keep "us" posted on this, Thank-You.

[@BrookHillHoneyMrGsHoneybees]

We took a look at the colony yesterday - just a quick peek to make sure we didn't see any evidence of robbing. Everything looked good except they were already building some funky comb so we rearranges a few frames to hopefully solve that. We didn't take the time to inspect for a queen - we didn't want to disturb them very much. They are taking in the sugar water we put in their box.

[@jumpoffa5011]

Sounds like they just need a little TLC is all. Keep us posted. :-)

[@BrookHillHoneyMrGsHoneybees]

I got confused - I thought your question was about the huge colony we rescued from the housing development. On this little colony we inspected the colony and found the queen, but unfortunately this colony took off during the second week, most likely to sure death by starvation this winter.