The Harry Potter Hive

I'm out of town, so Ruth had to pick up the latest swarm and take pictures for me.  This particular swarm was in a bait hive on her brother's land.  She got it well after dark on Sunday night, so nearly all of the foragers had made it in.

Her brother and his daughter, Keira, went out to the bait hive to help, her brother by shining the headlights from his car  while she worked, and then by going to get a blade to separate the hive from the cleat from which it was hanging (paint on paint, they kinda got stuck).  Keira watched in fascination while Ruth screwed the screen cap over the opening, then carefully lifted the hive down from its cleat.  Ruth replaced it with another hive box, so we may capture more swarms still.


Ruth covered the hive with a plastic bag, lest any bees escape, and drove home with the covered hive in the front seat of her car.  She placed the hive out in the apiary, removed the plastic cover, and called it a night.

I should explain at this point that earlier in the winter, Emma, who is Ruth's granddaughter, and Keira, who is Ruth's niece, painted a set of hive bodies for us. These bodies, which will form a single, complete hive, will go in Emma's yard eventually.  While they were at it, Keira painted another hive box to look like Harry Potter.  We had been keeping this box for an appropriate occasion, and this seemed like the one.

Early the next morning Ruth transferred the bees from the bait hive to the Harry Potter hive.  Here, we see the swarm box when she first opened it.

If you look closely, you can see all the bees down between the frames, as well as the ones crawling around on the top.  This was a large swarm, probably four or five pounds worth of bees, and they filled the box.  This is the kind of swarm we really like to catch.  With these numbers, they will fill a hive quickly, and are strong enough to defend their hive well.

This picture shows the hive as Ruth puts the frames from the bait hive into it.  Again, you can see the frames covered with bees.  In the frame at  the top you can see some freshly drawn comb, another sign that we've got a good swarm getting down to business.

Once she had all the frames from the bait hive transferred to the permanent hive, she pushed them all together in the middle and added empty frames to the outside until the box was full.  These empty frames give the hive room to make more comb, to be filled with brood (eggs) and honey.  A swarm this big should make short work of this box and need another one added on top before very long.

This is what it looked like at the end.  The hive has been filled, covered, and strapped shut to keep the lid from coming off.  The cover and box from the bait hive are left nearby so the bees which didn't yet make it into the permanent hive can still find it easily and join all their sisters.  By nightfall, all the bees should be reunited, back at work building and growing the colony.

The really neat thing?  Keira knows that "her" bees from her land are now in the hive she painted.

Pretty cool, huh?