I did an artificial “shook swarm” on a colony last week: lovely docile
bees. I found the queen and caged her on a frame, then shook lots of
bees into a box and then coaxed the queen onto my finger and put her in
the box – these were heading for my new octagonal hive at home.
Back
home I opened the box and found the queen sat on one of the lid flaps
so I coaxed her back onto my finger, and whilst in the palm of my one
hand I upturned the box (with my other hand) and shook the bees into the
empty hive. Then let the queen walk into her new home.
Tonight I
peeked through the observation window and could see a big cluster: this
hive is a top bar vertical (Warre type) with in built viewing ports. I
am really excited!
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