Hi Karen
One bee every five mins or so is not a strong indicator of an imminent
swarm wanting to move in, just that they are checking it out. (It could
also be ore-dwarm scouting).
If you see around 20 bees or so going in and out the hive, that's a good
indication that the hive is definitely a strong contender for the swarm.
And if they do choose it, they would be there within 30-60 mins from
intense scouting. But no guarantees, they could still choose somewhere else.
This afternoon we had about 12 bees inspecting our bait hive, but none now
When you see scouting activity, always good to have a wander around the
locale looking in trees and suchlike to see if you can spot the swarm the
scouts are coming from (one can sometimes follow them back to it, you can
see them beeline back - no success for us locating it today).
And yes the oil seed rape is really in full bloom in our area at the moment.
Btw, check your tbh internally for lots of spiderwebs if you think the bees
definitely didn't come out again, tho of course you could just have missed
them. The scouts can stay in the hive for a few mins at a time.
Lynne
On Thu, 5 May 2022, 17:07 Karen Giles, <karen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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Just watched a few, I presume, scout bees going into my empty tbh, short
vid attached.
I left all 3 entrances open as a bit of an experiment and put lemon grass
oil on each entrance, there are followers between each cavity and they were
going in both ends but not the side entrance, one every 5 mins or so.
Weirdly I didn’t see any come out! Fingers crossed they like what they
see.
Does anyone have any idea as to approx how long between scouting and
moving in if they do deem it acceptable?
Interesting that they were much lighter colour than my other bees.
One other thing, loads of my other bees are tooing and froing with very
yellow heads, I assume that is the glut of oil seed rape we have around us
this year?!
Best
Karen
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Karen Giles
Senior Design Engineer
Black Dog Design Ltd
t: 07790 908144
e:karen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
