jocorless
|
Swarms, swarms, swarmsI was about to leave on Saturday afternoon for (ironically) a beek meeting on Swarm Control when surprise surprise - the colony that swarmed last week swarmed again
This was from a colony that had only 2 Queen cells left - Obviously that was just enough for the bee's - 1 to keep and 1 to swarm - However I still don't think I would have broken them down to 1 cell as it might not have been viable
It landed in the next door but 1 neighbours garden on a garden arch with a grape vine growing over it - not the easiest place to extract a swarm from
It took me 3 attempts - going back and forth and brushing them into a cardboard box before I managed to get the Queen in it - which meant the whole swarm went into the box - I wrapped the box in a cloth and put it in a shady spot in the bottom of the garden overnight as I was running late to go out
On checking the original colony we saw the 2nd Queen emerging and heard her piping - wonderful stuff - she was a beauty as well - a very nice looking Queen
After getting back from lunch with my Dad and brother yesterday I had to make up some more brood frames so we could hive the swarm - which we did last night and they appear to still be there this morning with only few bee's still clustered around the entrance hopefully they'll find the food today in the Miller feeder on top
This means I now have 3 colonies and a nuc - The nuc and 2 colonies are being fed - the original colony still has the super on it
I'm going to see whether they all end up with laying Queens and re-unite any that don't down with a laying colony - If they do - I'll have a nuc for sale - I can't cope with more than 3 colonies at the moment - I don't have enough kit especially as I'm going to have to put them onto double brood to make sure they've enough space and plenty of stores for winter
|
Ginkotree
|
sounds like you have had a busy time, great that you have managed to get a nuc to sell.Some peoples hives are doing really well and some seem to be struggling badly round here, the weather is not reaching high enough for the bees to fly....the hive here seems happy enough but they are in a warm wooded glade so they are luckily in an ideal spot.
|
jocorless
|
Hubbie has now decided that we can have 4 colonies so is going to make me a double stand so I can get 2 colonies on it
All 4 colonies have been extremely busy today and are taking down syrup like mad - I've run out of Ambrosia and am onto 1-1 sugar syrup
The only problem I have now is that I've actually run out of kit - I need more foundation, super frames, a varroa floor, crown board and lid and to get them all onto double brood - 2 more brood chambers
|
gz
|
There must have been something special about Saturday afternoon...We had a swarm come off the mountain then, and it eventually (sunday evening) decided to land on a stunted sycamore growing between two layers of fence at the allotments.
Much explaining to local kids and parents that no you didn't want to kill them, they sting in self defence (as the 16 yr old who lobbed a rock at them found-he was lucky only to be stung once...pity!)
A local beekeeper (from Aberbeeg  ) came and collected them.
Strangely enough, there was a swarm to the exact place last year and possibly the year before that too.
|
Tavascarow
|
| jocorless wrote: |
The only problem I have now is that I've actually run out of kit - I need more foundation, super frames, a varroa floor, crown board and lid and to get them all onto double brood - 2 more brood chambers |
Build a TBH & you wont need hardly any extra kit?
|
jocorless
|
I don't have room for a horizontal TBH especially at the moment and moving over to Warre is something I wanted to do next year - I don't want to go into it in a rush - I have to do in an organised fashion
The club is setting up an apiary - I'm hoping that I can take one of the colonies up there to give me a little more room and that I'll be able to take one or two colonies up to the heather on the moors
|
RichardW
|
Well I think that 4 hives is just plain greedy lol.
My offer is still open to any one to supply a swarm (delivered) in exchange for a Cedar 3 foot TBH.
So far my attractant is not working. So bad that the local bee inspector caught a swarm & put it in one of his hives about 400m away & it left but dint come here.
Richard
|
Lorrainelovesplants
|
Weve collected 2 swarms locally so far. We use lemon balm (the actual plant leaves) as an attractant and collect about 8pm as they are nearly all settled and very calm to move.
We also are amalgamating an exising hive from last year with the first swarm we collected about a month ago.
Feeding with about pints of syrup to ensure success.
Seems as if its ging to be a good summer, though.
|
kirsty
|
Our hive of bees swarmed 4 times in May this year! We had some serious control problems and as usual asked 4 different Bee keepers at the club and got 4 different lots of advice on how to deal with it
We now have two hives and one of them is now producing queen cells again.
We got out first nuc from Easy Bee and people keep telling us they are "swarmy bees" 
Does all this swarming around the country mean that bees are actually doing quite well at the minute?
|
jocorless
|
Well nearly everyone I know is getting caught out by swarms at the moment
I have a theory that Mother Nature is trying to make up for the last couple of dreadful years and something has triggered the bee's into replicating like mad as I suspect they know that its going to be a bumper year
I don't think we can say that bee's are doing OK at the moment - I think we'd need a sustained growth for a number of years before we can say that
However they are obviously very happy this year to be swarming every which way they can
|
Lloyd
|
Ten days ago the bees in our chimney swarmed to a tree in the garden. We called a chap out to remove them, and he thinks we will get maybe another four swarms from them this year, as he saw many queens in the swarm, and much activity from the chimney top. I hope they do, as we are still getting about two dozen dead or dying bees in the lounge each evening....
|
goosey
|
That's a nice series of pics Lloyd, which shows how to collect a swarm. Hope you're not still getting bees indoors.
I wish a swarm would come over this way
There's a nice hive waiting, and a beautiful avenue of tall linden trees at the bottom of the hill, which smell gogeous.
|
Jamanda
|
That's a big old swarm!
Mine sounded like they had a Harley Davidson in there when I had a peep tonight.
|
Ginkotree
|
Thankyou for showing those pictures ,it looks like they were waiting to be homed..
|
jocorless
|
I've been in the bee's tonight and was very pleased to find that the 3 colonies in brood chambers are all Queenright and they have egg's
The nuc at the moment doesn't appear to have anything doing but it was atleast a week behind the other colonies so I'm not worrying yet - it was very very full and desperately needs moving into a brood chamber but I'm still waiting for my order's from Thornes and National Bee Supplies to turn up - I'm really hoping they turn up by the weekend otherwise I'll have to take a full frame of food out of the nuc and swap it with an undrawn one out of one of the other colonies
The original colony has nearly a full super of honey and needs another - the other 2 have undrawn comb so I've moved it about a bit and hopefully now the queens are laying they'll draw those out as well - I'll put supers on both of them in a week or two just before we go on holiday to make sure that they don't run out of space whilst my friends daughter is house sitting
After last year's disaster where I split the colony into 3 - got a nuc that was Queenright but was promised to SpicyCauldron's partner and another that ended up with laying workers - to have 3 Queenright colonies is fantastic - if the nuc doesn't start laying in another week or so - I'll re-unite it with the 2nd colony to strengthen it
|
