Welcome back to the Bee Sanctuary. Today’s mission took us to Roosevelt Park in Johannesburg for a rescue that turned out to be full of surprises. We were called to remove a swarm from a compost bin, but there was a catch: we realized upon arrival that the bin was completely open at the bottom!

The “Portal” Move

Since the bees were relatively calm and the bin was portable, we decided to try a low-stress relocation. We sealed the bottom as best as we could and transported the entire compost bin directly to the Kyalami Apiary. By moving their whole “house,” we hoped to keep the colony intact and undisturbed until we were ready for a proper transfer.

The Transfer: Finding the “Deceiving” Queen

A few days later, it was time to move them from the bin into a permanent 6-frame nuc box.

• The Inspection: Initially, the swarm looked small from the outside. But once we lifted the lid? Wow. The photo was deceiving! We found a massive amount of healthy brood with a beautiful, solid pattern.
• Pollen Power: The foragers were busy bringing in tons of pollen, which is a great sign of a growing, hungry colony.
• The Jackpot: In a rare stroke of luck, we actually spotted the queen! We managed to secure her in a queen clip, which made the rest of the transfer a breeze. When you have the queen, the rest of the bees will follow her anywhere.

Settling into the Nuc

We’ve now coaxed the rest of the colony out of the compost bin and into their new wooden home. We also had to keep a sharp eye out for robber bees from other hives, but with the queen safely inside, the colony quickly organized themselves.

Finding the queen “in the wild” like that doesn’t happen every day, so it was a huge win for the team! This strong colony is going to be a fantastic addition as we push closer to our 300-hive goal.

Want to see the moment we caught the queen?

Make sure to Subscribe to the Bee Sanctuary and check out the latest video! Seeing a queen “in the zone” is one of the coolest parts of beekeeping.

Quick Question: If you have the choice, do you prefer a “slow” trap-out or a “fast” manual transfer like this one? Let’s talk shop in the comments.

How should we proceed? Would you like to see an update on the queen in her new 6-frame box, or are you ready for our next garden rescue?