Any scouts at your swarm trap?

[Ian123]

I am on the somerset /wiltshire border and the club I belong to has had one swarm.
The weather has been and remains terrible.
My concern at the moment is the lack of pollen coming in.

Early season mine had not been advanced as previous years do to a lack of pollen or more to the point weather conditions to forage for it. There’s plenty about atm, whilst the weathers not great it’s drier and they’re getting out. Nor should it be a worry bees will if needed adjust brood rearing to its availability. They’ll respond to conditions just fine!

 

[Newbeeneil]

Got a text from one of my landlords to say a swarm had taken up residence but when I went to have a look they were just scouts. Quite a few of them tho.
I have almost 30 hives within a mile of this bait hive and I’ve checked all of them in the last two days so pretty sure they aren’t mine!

Update, just popped down the shed to knock up some more frames. There is now activity around the bait hive on the roof which is about 1/2 mile from the other one. It looks like they are sussing out all the local potential abodes!

 

[JamezF]

Plenty of activity around my home bait hive around noon today. I was just on my way to the apiary to inspect and heard "that sound". Oh look! A swarm in flight, heading straight into my hive. I can see them settling in from my office window right now.

No idea if it's one of my colonies or not yet as I stopped to watch. It seems highly likely, but if so I'd have expected to hear them in their bivouac (assuming they bothered) as I have been working within about twenty metres of the apiary all morning. There was no clustering of bees on the front of any of my hives, either.

James

 

[Nannysbees]

Lovely day here, inspected both hives, building nicely

 

[Lincbee]

First swarm of the year has arrived in one of my 6 bait hives. Arrived sometime at the weekend, will leave them to settle in for a few days before transferring to a proper hive. None of my other bait hives have had any scouts at all around them yet!

 

[Parsonage Bees]

First swarm of the year has arrived in one of my 6 bait hives. Arrived sometime at the weekend, will leave them to settle in for a few days before transferring to a proper hive. None of my other bait hives have had any scouts at all around them yet!

Are you in Lincolnshire, Lincbee? . . . . Ben

 

[Newbeeneil]

All my activity on three of my bait hives in the village has ceased since I checked two hives and found unsealed queen cells. Nuced both queens.

 

[gwt_uk]

Nothing at my bait hive yet.

 

[Lincbee]

Are you in Lincolnshire, Lincbee? . . . . Ben

Yes North Lincolnshire

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Yes North Lincolnshire

Not much happening at my bait hive yet. Good luck with yours.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes North Lincolnshire

Pop your location into your profile?

 

[holmbee]

Was excited four days ago as scouts investigated my baitl hive. Numbers slowly increased but no swarm. Too many now for scouts with number staying the same just a few hundred. Can only assume this is a cast - probably with a virgin queen. Irritating as this seriously reduces chance of good swarm.

 

[Moobee]

I had already collected my first swarm by the beginning of May last year…..not a sniff of anything locally so far on the sunny West Sussex coast….

 

[Fellstoflats]

I had already collected my first swarm by the beginning of May last year…..not a sniff of anything locally so far on the sunny West Sussex coast….

Same here in South Oxfordshire- more activity yesterday, but torrential rain this morning, and thunderstorms forecast for later on!

 

[JamezF]

Same here in South Oxfordshire- more activity yesterday, but torrential rain this morning, and thunderstorms forecast for later on!

Something like five hours of thunderstorms and rain all day was forecast for here last night. Then first thing this morning it was just showers all day and no thunderstorms. Now it's thunderstorms and heavy rain around lunchtime and none otherwise. I don't know why they bother...

James

 

[pargyle]

No sign of activity in my bait boxes yet. It's very heavy and overcast today down here on the Costa del Fareham ... I'm expecting thunder at any minute although there's no rain yet. Bees are flying but there seemed to be more coming back than going out - usual sign that there's weather on the way.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Second bait box put up on coal shed roof yesterday. Lots of interest today. More than the first box on the top of the wall.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Got a swarm call via the BBKA site this afternoon regarding a swarm in my village. Unfortunately I was in a rush to take SWMBO out for lunch so couldn't spend any time to get them out of the hedge. I popped a box over them and watched as the slowly marched up and told the home owner I would be back in about 3 hours. When I returned they had done a runner and all that was left was a single bee in the box.
I did a run around my bait hives in the village to find one was newly occupied.

 

[JamezF]

Opened up my home bait hive this evening. Looks like it's being occupied by stragglers from the colony I moved away earlier in the week. There's certainly no queen in there. Even I could find her amongst two dozen bees.

Not sure what I'm going to do now. I don't really want them occupying the box and fighting off scouts, but then I don't want them flying about near the house making a nuisance of themselves because they can't find their home either.

James

 

[Do224]

First scouts appeared today

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