i've just lost a swarm. i mentioned we came back from holiday last week to find a big swarm sending scouts out to quite heavily investigate my bait hive, which then abandoned its plans & went home. well, yesterday the same hive produced a bundle of bees about the size of a tennis ball, hanging just below the entrance. the bees were quite frisky at this time, & i got stung & chased a bit just for standing quietly 10 feet away. i went & looked at my other hives too, & they were all going bonkers. by which i mean, usually in a busy hive i feel like you see 2 distinct behaviours, foragers coming quickly & purposefully in & out, and young bees wandering around the entrance doing orientation flights. this time all the hives just had bees belting off all over the place without rhyme or reason. i thought, right, thats a virgin off on her mating flight, thats why the other hives are excited, when shes gone they'll settle down. wish i'd stayed to watch a bit longer now! half an hour later all was quiet, the ball of bees had gone, but looking in the window, the top box, which has been heaving with bees since the day after i put it on, 2 weeks ago, had about a dozen bees in- much more than a tennis balls' worth missing.
so i guess my virgin, if thats what she was, continued to amass her swarm right on the doorstep after i'd gone, then just headed off. had a hopeful look at my bait hive this afternoon, but no joy, evidently they've gone somewhere else.
as ever, glad to hear if anyone has an alternative hypothesis, i think the aborted swarm lost its queen somehow based on its behaviour at the time, & the fact that the bees were crochety a few days afterwards, so i was expecting a virgin to emerge about now. i'd been sort of hoping there'd just be the one though, so i didn't have to worry about casts...
Sent: Saturday, May 07, 2022 at 8:29 PM
From: "K LA" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [oxnatbees] Re: swarm this week
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
