Swarm control

[Greengage]

Just planning for the future, has anyone tried a taranov split, looks easy if the weather is good and the bees are thinking about swarming. Then everything looks easy when you read about it in a book.

[Feckless Drone]

Taranov split

That legend Dave Cushman wrote about this - http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/taranovswm.html

Read to the end and then ask yourself - why am I unhappy with what I did last year? I know what you did last summer!

[Greengage]

Jeez your hilarious, Anyway no harm in trying something different I saw it on utube (Turn down the sound) you would nearly be afraid to mention the Russians or I might have to resign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgCzbyMWDKw

[Wmfd]

I tried it a couple of years ago, bees everywhere, although it worked out when we spotted the queen running up the ramp and I popped her in a cage.

The video looks interesting- is the idea that the queen ends up in the brood under the ramp? I just used a ramp, hadn't thought to put a box under there.

[fatshark]

Classic Taranov has no 'box' surely ... non-flying bees and the Q collect on the underside of the ramp. Flyers cross the gap. I'm not sure anything crosses the gap in that video. I'd like to see how populated the hive was at the end as it didn't look as though they separated anything.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Classic Taranov has no 'box' surely ...

The chap closed the box with a crown board and closed the feed hole. I think he only used the box to raise the board. But, yes - dreadful example of a Taranov split, I thought, and a terrible video, missing out the crucial bit of bees flying across the gap to the hive's entrance.

I've made a Taranov board, but I've never used it. It's just something else to carry around and as my hive stands aren't all at the same height, I thought it would be a kerfuffle to get the board aligned correctly - or I'll have to spend more time trying to make a better, more adjustable board.

Kitta

[Wmfd]

Thanks Kitta, well spotted, I hadn't seen he'd closed it up.

Different hive heights are a problem, and when I tried it was a real job as the hive was a bit low (so some rapid changing required).

I am wondering whether to try again. Having watched a few other videos, I can see it could have been better,

David

[Poly Hive]

It takes pretty strong nerves to do this, and a very good bee suit, and it is VERY tough on the bees. Further if there is nectar in the combs it is very messy and there is frankly a high death rate. Oh yes it reads easy peasy but.. the devil is aye in the details.

I have done it three times. Twice as I just couldn't find the queen, and once for a demo. But not for over 20 years and I doubt ever again.

PH

[Jimbo]

Aye done it once and won't try that again!


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[Mellifera Crofter]

... Further if there is nectar in the combs it is very messy and there is frankly a high death rate. ...
I have done it three times. Twice as I just couldn't find the queen ...

PH

PH, I don't understand why your combs were affected when using a Taranov board, or why you needed to find the queen. I thought the idea is that the queen and non-flying bees (the young ones) walk up the board and gather under it while the older bees fly back into the hive. [ps: as Fatshark said above]

And why is there a high death rate? As I've said earlier - I've never done it, so I don't know.

Kitta

[fatshark]

I've not done a Taranov but it's (or perhaps was) on a 'To Do' list.

However, I regularly shake through a complete brood box to harvest nurse bees for mating nucs. Remove brood box to the side, new empty box in it's place on the floor, shake every frame into it (having found the Q and placed her somewhere safe), add QE, add original BB plus frames of brood and wait for an hour or so. Nurse bees go up to tend the brood, and you shake them out into a picnic freezer box to harvest for the mini-nucs.

By far and away the least pleasant beekeeping task I do. It's almost always on a wet or cool day (and time critical, so cannot be delayed). The bees get pretty disturbed ... unless the colony has a tendency to be tetchy, in which case they go totally postal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_postal).

I've not noticed a high death rate, but am usually just pleased to be away from the colony ;)

PS ... 'nectar in the frames' ... possibly shaken out and gums everything up in a pile of angry bees? I've not noticed this as most of the nectar is usually in the supers by the time I harvest nurse bees.

[busybeephilip]

Classic Taranov - Dont have time to do this, splits are the way to go

[Mellifera Crofter]

How does one manage the bees after the Taranov split? The queen is now with all the young bees, and the brood with the old ones.

If you put her back on the original spot, she will gain flying bees and become a balanced colony - but what about the brood part? Or would it be better to arrange them vertically like in a Demaree, so that they can then sort themselves out?

Kitta

[Poly Hive]

What i did was to treat the "swarm" as just that and leave an open cell for the rest. Seemed to work ok but it's not a technique I would recommend. It is seriously rough on the bees.

PH