DAPPH
as dyslexik as I'm daft
- Messages
- 6,417
- Location
- Near to Cross Hands Llanelli SouthWales GB
Those days are almost gone due to varroa and colony collapse .. feral nests don't seem to make it into the next year .My folks had a large bee nest in their apple tree, someone put me in touch with a local guy who rescued and rehomed - never knew such thing existed.
I asked if I could help / watch, he said sure and went to his car and got a set of gloves, hat & suit for me, he didn't use anything!
It was fascinating and seemed fairly gentle process with not much more than smoke and a cardboard box, he spotted the queen in no time and marked with a felt tip pen! - Lovely old boy.
My last feral swarm collection from a factory environment was so badly infected with varroa & sick crippled baby bees I fumed the cardboard box with petrol to kill them then burnt them & the box .
There's not much point in bringing a heavily infected sick swarm into your apiaries when you have 100 or more hives & 45 or more healthy neucs on the go .