Any scouts at your swarm trap?

[masterBK]

Went down to the out-apairy on Monday to find a large swarm near the top of a tall tree way way beyond the reach of my 3 piece ladder plus at my age (77yrs next week) there was no way I was going up that tree. So I wondered if I could tempt them down into a bait hive. I set up a 3 story bait hive using 3 brood boxes each with some frames of old comb seperated by split boards with entrances pointing in different directions. I then checked the 17 colonies I keep there and found sealed cells in two of them . Sorting them out plus other jobs took me just over an hour. Just as I was packing up to go home I noticed several dozen bees investigating the bait hives so I went away hopeful they were scouts from the swarm. On thursday curiosity got the better of me and I revisited the apiary to find the middle BC of the 3 story bait hive brimming over with bees. Can't be certain but hopefully they were the bees from the swarm up the tree and from one of my two colonies that had swarmed. If so, they should have a pink marked queen (I use pink pen rather than red as it shows up better) when I go back next monday to give them a dose of oxalic to reduce the V mites they brought with them.

 

[Antipodes]

Went down to the out-apairy on Monday to find a large swarm near the top of a tall tree way way beyond the reach of my 3 piece ladder plus at my age (77yrs next week) there was no way I was going up that tree. So I wondered if I could tempt them down into a bait hive. I set up a 3 story bait hive using 3 brood boxes each with some frames of old comb seperated by split boards with entrances pointing in different directions. I then checked the 17 colonies I keep there and found sealed cells in two of them . Sorting them out plus other jobs took me just over an hour. Just as I was packing up to go home I noticed several dozen bees investigating the bait hives so I went away hopeful they were scouts from the swarm. On thursday curiosity got the better of me and I revisited the apiary to find the middle BC of the 3 story bait hive brimming over with bees. Can't be certain but hopefully they were the bees from the swarm up the tree and from one of my two colonies that had swarmed. If so, they should have a pink marked queen (I use pink pen rather than red as it shows up better) when I go back next monday to give them a dose of oxalic to reduce the V mites they brought with them.

Nice one !

 

[Do224]

Having put swarm traps out for the past four years, I’ve really noticed a significant lack of interest in them this year. I did have one swarm arrive when the weather briefly warmed up in early May, but not a sniff since then…no scouts at all.

Usually there is pretty relentless scouting at the traps during the second half of May and during the majority of June. I guess it’s just been too cold this year…

I’ll be curious to see what happens when the weather finally does warm up. Will there be a lot of late swarming at the end of June and perhaps into July or will they just not have it on their agenda by then. Usually the scouting almost completely stops once we’re into July.

Will be interesting to see. I’ve noticed a lot of people mention on the forum that they stop inspecting their colonies once into July, or even once beyond the summer solstice…so I guess the general consensus is that swarming is usually so unlikely at that time of year that inspections are an unnecessary disruption to the bees.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Having put swarm traps out for the past four years, I’ve really noticed a significant lack of interest in them this year. I did have one swarm arrive when the weather briefly warmed up in early May, but not a sniff since then…no scouts at all.

Usually there is pretty relentless scouting at the traps during the second half of May and during the majority of June. I guess it’s just been too cold this year…

I’ll be curious to see what happens when the weather finally does warm up. Will there be a lot of late swarming at the end of June and perhaps into July or will they just not have it on their agenda by then. Usually the scouting almost completely stops once we’re into July.

Will be interesting to see. I’ve noticed a lot of people mention on the forum that they stop inspecting their colonies once into July, or even once beyond the summer solstice…so I guess the general consensus is that swarming is usually so unlikely at that time of year that inspections are an unnecessary disruption to the bees.

I think the lack of swarming ( I’ve only had 2 swarms from 18 bait hives) is due to the lack of stores the colonies have. If you have no stores to take with you the chances of survival is pretty slim.

 

[Do224]

I think the lack of swarming ( I’ve only had 2 swarms from 18 bait hives) is due to the lack of stores the colonies have. If you have no stores to take with you the chances of survival is pretty slim.

Yeah that makes sense. I wonder if many colonies will have time to build up and swarm this season. Looking at the forecast it’s likely to be past the solstice before we see any improvement in the weather and they’re able to forage properly.

 

[simonwig]

Small swarm arriving at a bait hive, 30 times sped up.

View attachment Swarm arriving.mov
Simon