alison
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Guess what I have been doing tonight?After the sad demise of my bees, from starvation during the snow, I have read enviously about everyones bees.
Tonight though, I was contacted, and have collected my first swarm, on my own, and just finished tucking them up safely in the hive.
How good do I feel!
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jocorless
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Brilliant - Congratulations - I bet you feel 10ft tall!
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alison
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Well you know how upset I was. I can't stop grinning! 
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Jamanda
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Great news  Where were they?
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Sally
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Wonderful! ... any pictures????
We were going to open our hived swarm tonight, but it suddenly turned cold before we got there.... so perhaps tomorrow night.
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alison
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| Jamanda wrote: | | Great news Where were they? |
Well I was taking the children to lifesaving, when OH rang me.
CU from the apairy had rung, and did I want a swarm. Rushed home and rang the house. Worried woman with 3 children , in Barnstaple, behind the hospital.
The swarm had arrived on Friday, but they didn't know who to call, and didn't want it killed. They rang a few people in the councel and pest control, and eventually Mr U was called, as he deals with swarms, and he offered me to get it. It was underneath their trampoline, so no difficult high brances for me to struggle with.
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TheGrange
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oh well done i bet you're just simply buzzing ... sorry someone had too
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goosey
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Great news -very pleased for you
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Penny
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Well done you
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jocorless
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Was it a prime or a cast swarm?
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Chez
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Well done you!
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Tavascarow
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Get some syrup into them.
If they have been hanging for 3 days they will be hungry.
Well done.
Hope you have more luck with these.
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BahamaMama
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| jocorless wrote: | | Was it a prime or a cast swarm? |
What is the difference? I know nothing about bees, just what I read on here so I am learning lots at the moment
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jocorless
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A prime swarm is 50% of the flying bee's plus the original queen - Very big usually and the best to catch
A cast swarm usually takes 50% of the remaining flying bee's plus a newly emerged Virgin Queen - You can get multiple ones of these until the bee's decide that enough of the colony has left to give them the space they need
I've spoken to the Bee Inspector this morning - he's not coming out to my bee's today as its so wet but he said that the Bee's are swarming like mad at the moment and alot of them are taking the opportunity to re-queen as well - its as though they've been put on hold for the last couple of years and someones pressed play!
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BahamaMama
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Thanks for the explanation. They are complicated little critters!
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alison
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I think it is a prime swarm.
I popped up this morning to look at them , and feed them.
They are incredibly calm.
Still really excited, and smiley!
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Tavascarow
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| BahamaMama wrote: | | jocorless wrote: | | Was it a prime or a cast swarm? |
What is the difference? I know nothing about bees, just what I read on here so I am learning lots at the moment |
When bees swarm the old queen will leave with a large proportion of the more mature flying bees so as Jo says tends to be larger.
The remaining bees are left with a young virgin queen or queen cells that will emerge as virgin queens.
Usually the first queen to emerge will destroy the other queen cells to ensure she takes over but sometimes the worker bees wont allow this & more queens hatch. These will leave with a small number of bees (sometimes as little as a cup full).
This is why most beekeepers destroy all but one or two cells when artificial swarming or all of them if they are trying to prevent swarming altogether.
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