We had a call just after lunch, from one of our out apiaries which is on some secure government land, to say that our bees were swarming. The bees have been there since the end of July 2014 so the workforce had never experience a swarm before. We were told that the swarm flew straight out of the hive and initially settled high in a tree and then moved lower down. When we got there we could not find a swarm - just a few bees flying near a tree. We then inspected all three colonies on site. We found the queen, with no play cups or swarm cells in two of the colonies. In the third colony, which was only on three frames of brood, we could not find the queen, but that is not unusual for that particular queen. There were lots of eggs, brood in all stages and lots of bees in the brood box and super. We went through that brood box four times shaking off the bees but there is absolutely no sign of swarm cells of any kind or even play cups. We even went through the super. If they have swarmed, and I am not sure that they have, why have they done so as they had plenty of room, some shade from the sun and no queen cells at all? Can anyone proffer an explanation?
A question about swarming?
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REDWOOD
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When was the last time you inspected and seen the queen.
Seven days ago.
Sorry ignore that last post - it was 5 days ago.
enrico
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You say you found the queen, but was it the same queen? Sometimes hives will run with two queens for a while before a swarm finally leaves.....best solution I can come up with!
E
E
Yes it was the same queen as she was marked. We can't understand it as we were expecting to find capped queen cells if they had swarmed - but there was nothing, no sign of cells or even play cups. Just lovely capped brood.
For want of a better word
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Is there another beekeeper close by?
Some years ago, when I was at Uni there seemed to be a lot of beekeepers scattered across the city.
A swarm will sometimes settle.. and then move off again... often seem to pick an apiary site as an intermediary.
That is why I try to keep a bait hive at each site.
Yeghes da
Some years ago, when I was at Uni there seemed to be a lot of beekeepers scattered across the city.
A swarm will sometimes settle.. and then move off again... often seem to pick an apiary site as an intermediary.
That is why I try to keep a bait hive at each site.
Yeghes da
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yours bees haven't swarmed, probably they were having a very busy time play flight at the time and the inexperienced observers thought oh bloody hell them bees are swarming
REDWOOD
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One of those things you can't put your finger on but could have been like previously said a swarm that had settled on your hive, bees do attract bees.
Yes there is another apiary site less than half a mile away and I did wonder if perhaps it had come from there. However the staff at the site were convinced that the bees were coming out of one of the hives and flying straight to the tree - which I found very strange as in my experience the bees when they swarm tend to fly round and round the hive, waiting for more bees to exit the hive, before flying off. It will be interesting to see if they have started to build emergency queen cells when we next inspect or whether the queen was just hiding away as she very often does. There were a lot of eggs there so she was laying up to 3 days ago. I don't know how long before swarming a queen stops laying eggs?
einsteinagogo
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last year a DPD courier, left a message Online after a Delivery, and said, your Bees are swarming!
I rushed home from the office, only to find, there was a heavy flow on.....
not swarming, so members of the public, do not know what a swarm is!
My neighbour also said your bees are swarming, and again, it was just busy bees on a flow....
I've since, showed them both, what a swarm is.... and then stated "bloody hell" that's a lot of bees....
beeno
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It is not an 'old' AS, as they are reputed to swarm from time to time leaving no QCs behind?
Id quiz the witnesses to describe what they saw
did they see a cloud of bees 6m+ in diameter with a density of ~50 bees per m3
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They might not stop laying at all
Travelator
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That's a cloud of bees about 1 rod in across with about 2 grains of insect per cubic foot, for those who prefer imperial units.
