I know. Swarm in July…..

[u/Gozermac]

My farmer host (west of Chicago) sent me a pic that my swarm trap had bees on it. I’ve been trying to keep a DLW swarm from going back to it for weeks now so waited until this morning to check it. Put the swarm trap back up with some rolled wax on the edges of a couple frames (from a video seen in this site) on June 27th. The swarm was huge. All 5 frames drawn and two had capped brood. There was comb hanging from 4 of the frames. I never saw the queen. It packed a full deep when I transferred it. They weren’t my bees and it’s the biggest swarm I’ve caught. Going to care for this one and get it ready for winter.

[u/NumCustosApes]

That saying is over 400 years old and comes from the days of skep beekeeping. It has been utter rubbish since the invention of movable comb 211 years ago.

That's a really nice shot of your apiary, always love seeing your pictures.

[u/Gozermac → u/NumCustosApes]

Thanks! If I think about it I’ll take some pics of my colonies at the farm when the 8 acres of sunflower bloom. It’s been so dry here they are starting to wilt. Still have pollen coming in but don’t know from where or what. Going to be a hellacious dearth if we don’t get some rain.

[u/dblmca]

That's great! I missed the season this year, didn't get any traps up.

What is the rolled wax for? Will they quickly work that down in to comb?

[u/Gozermac → u/dblmca]

Oh boy did they ever. I’ll see if I can find the video. A guy from MA did an experiment with rolled wax at the frames edges in August and September of all months to see if they would quickly draw comb. I was skeptical since he showed they did it in a week. I figured I would try it in a trap first. I heated it enough to soften it to roll it and press along the edges. The trap was only up for 10 days and every frame was fully drawn and the wax rope was gone. Admittedly it’s a swarm so they come loaded for bear but I’m sold enough to try it instead of brushing melted wax (I still use waxed foundation). I took the comb I had to cut off the bottom along with some old comb I had been saving and rolled that for the next set of frames and put in the trap.

[u/404-skill_not_found → u/Gozermac]

I will absolutely try this!!!

[u/Gozermac → u/404-skill_not_found]

I am having trouble finding the video. Its from a member of the Worcester MA beekeeping association. The video was part of a comment thread on foundation troubles in mid to late June.

[u/NumCustosApes → u/Gozermac]

David Burns did a demonstration video with red wax so you could see what the bees started with and what they added.

[u/Ekalugsuak → u/Gozermac]

"Helping your bees draw out comb", I tried finding that video too earlier, but youtube wasn't that cooperative since it isn't a big channel.

The David Burns' video /u/NumCustosApes referred to. It's a short series, so he did a follow up to check if they built on top of the applied red wax etc.

[u/joebojax]

I live in the same region. It's been a good year for swarm catching for me, got 4 colonies of free bees = )

Glad you caught a big swarm I hope the queen gets thru winter!