I thought I would report my swarm experiences so far this season.
About two weeks ago, I caught a swarm from my colony (I think), boxed it up and
discovered the next day that the fork made air holes had been eaten out to
provide escape holes. Anyway I hived them but they left the following day.
A week ago, I collected a swarm in a dry stone wall near Burford which I boxed
and hived the next day. Three days later I found two small swarms and the hive
empty. Could they have both been from the same colony? Anyway I called Emma and
Martin in Spelsbury to collect the accessible one as I figured they didn’t want
to stay with me. They boxed and hived and all seems well. The other swarm was
inaccessible and had disappeared by the morning. Pity they didn’t decide to
inhabit one of the empty hives!
Hoping for better success…
Mariella
On 7 May 2022, at 14:06, Gareth John <gj.garethjohn@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Good to hear these stories. Swarming this year seems rather variable in
terms of the behaviour of the swarms. I’ve had one swarm that divided into
two after being hived. Half the swarm moved up into the roof space and the
other half decamped entirely, only to reappear two days later in the bait
hive the swarm had originally been scouting. As far as I can tell this was
the first swarm from the parent hive so I suspect that supercedure and
swarming have been combined. In other words, no prime swarm with a mated
queen but two unmated queens instead.
Another swarm left its parent hive and attempted to settle but after much
swirling returned to its hive. The following day it re-emerged and settled in
the exact spot that it wanted to settle on the previous day. Presumably this
time with a queen (or two). Queens can be reluctant to leave a hive.
As to feeding swarms, even if they have been out for several days I would not
feed at present. There is a huge amount of nectar around and any supplemental
feeding is likely to exacerbate honey binding - new comb being immediately
filled with nectar leaving no room for the queen to lay. I am seeing this
even in unfed swarms.
Gareth
Sent from my iPad
On 7 May 2022, at 12:02, Helen Nunn <helenmaynunn@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi all
I learnt some more things this week as on Monday I got a call about a swarm
on our allotments - most probably from one of my hives. But when we got
there it had disappeared, leaving some small clumps of bees on fruit cage
posts. We should have looked around in more detail, though.
No more was heard until Thursday evening when a cluster (must have been the
same swarm) was spotted quite nearby, but on a sapling just the other side
of the main fence. Too late to do anything that evening.
On Friday morning we got going. It was a step-ladder job, above head-height,
with brambles involved. I managed to get about 80% into a box, but a cluster
was left on the sapling. Maybe the queen was left behind?
After about half an hour we had another look and the small cluster was quite
agitated, so we surmised they'd lost their queen and went home for some
coffee. (I while back I would probably have tried to scoop them, but leaving
them was better!)
An hour later, and all the bees had gone into the box, upside down on a
sheet on the ground. No need even for mint spray on the sapling. Success! A
careful trip home to our cool(ish) garage and a call to Rachel, the nearest
on the list.
As they had been out from Monday to Friday, I suggested feeding to Rachel
who took them that afternoon. Today she reports that they are happy and busy.
Hope that's encouraging.
Helen
