Beekeeping

[CloverKnollFarms]

Well, I went to one of my bee yards to do a split and found that a swarm had moved into one of my empty hives! We completed the split with three frames of brood, nurse bees and 3 queen cells. We then added two frames of honey/pollen that we had in storage, and one frame of empty, drawn comb for the new queen to lay eggs in after she is mated.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Checked on a couple baited hives this morning on the way home from church... Success! Another swarm in the box. Now at 8 colonies

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Is there anyone else with anything to report with their bees?

My split has some foragers working today

 

[drumminj]

I am apparently a bad bee-haver as my two colonies have now issued at least 3 swarms. I posted about the first - tried to catch it but it decided to go elsewhere. Didn't even get a chance at the second one (girlfriend saw it flying away). I assume that was a secondary swarm from the same colony (the tri-deltas).

Girlfriend noticed another swarm today that settled in a maple tree right by our chicken coop. Pretty sure it's the other colony (chi-omegas). Did a quick inspection and have been busy all week and didn't realize they've drawn 4 and filled 4 frames in the last two weeks.

Grabbed a half frame of brood from the hive, shoved it in the nuc box and shook the swarm into it. So far they seem to be hanging around (box is sitting on top of the ladder for now).

Added a fresh coat of wax to some medium frames and threw a super on the bees I belived swarmed, as tulip poplar looks to be starting to bloom here. Need to find time to finish painting the new hive setup, assuming the swarm sticks around.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Well, bees swarm, and it's hard to stop them. Catching them is probably best done passively in many cases by using bait hives or traps. Catching them in the act takes a lot of oversight

 

[BackRoad]

But what causes them to swarm?

Especially if their original is a comfortable, dry, productive hive, why
leave?

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

But what causes them to swarm?

Especially if their original is a comfortable, dry, productive hive, why
leave?

Well, they don’t leave… that is absconding. A swarm is when the colony decides to split itself. They create a new queen, and the old queen leaves with half the original hive. They find a new home… this is how bees naturally propagate. If they didn’t, they would have ceased to exist long ago. Bees are programmed to do one thing, propagate more bees, period. One colony quickly becomes two or three. Then next year, all of those become four to nine!

 

[drumminj]

Well, bees swarm, and it's hard to stop them. Catching them is probably best done passively in many cases by using bait hives or traps. Catching them in the act takes a lot of oversight

Understood - I'm not looking to stop swarming, and honestly don't feel the need to catch every swarm. Had planned to just let them "do their thing", but have since learned it's hard to just watch them fly away

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I have been in a season of too many things going on to be able to commit the time necessary to be a good beekeeper for the last few years. I've been more of a "bee haver" That being said. I have been organizing my beekeeping supplies and have put up 6 swarm traps this spring. I checked 4 of them this weekend and have not had any luck yet. But we have had a very dry spring and I'm just now seeing swarms pop up on facebook. So we may have a bit of a late swarm season.

 

[ponytug]

But what causes them to swarm?

Especially if their original is a comfortable, dry, productive hive, why
leave?

It is in their nature as @CloverKnollFarms wrote. There's a fun book, if you are interested;

https://www.amazon.com/Honeybee-Democracy-Thomas-D-Seeley/dp/0691147213

All the best, Peter