Anyone had swarms yet?

[Insy]

Hey,

Anyone had any swarm calls or collected any swarms yet?

Got a message from the farmer today saying they saw tons of bees looking as tho they was lost, I asked the farmer if it looked like a big cloud and they said yes.

On looking into the apiary I had 2 overwintered hives which I didn't reduce for overwintering, they both nice and active bee going in and out both which was nice to see. I had a floor, brood box, super + roof empty in the apiary as well and on inspection it was also very active, so I'm assuming that's the bees the farmer saw.

I thought it was still to early for swarming even tho its been mild?

Was to late to pull them all apart so will get back down there as soon as possible, will also take another bait hive. They've always had swarms at this farm this where I got all my bees from bait hives haha.

Going to be going down to 1 hive this year, so depending on health and size of colonies I will be merging them into 1 or might have to relocate the other.

Thanks

 

[Tom Bick]

One has been reported in London last Friday. I think people who put themselves forward to collect swarms are going to be busy soon.

 

[Russel]

One of our guys is off to pick one up tomorrow!

 

[Insy]

I've been holding off my first inspection, but my bees are very active so will inspect this week. Tbh I doubt its mine that's swarmed I left them with so much free space, probably just another random swarm.

Got to try and find this colony that's spitting them out yearly.

 

[WingCommander]

I did my first inspection last Saturday having had planned inspections put off by work and weather. I had a super below the brood box. The brood box was full with brood on 8 frames and the super was nearly full. If the super hadn't been there then they would probably have run out of space already. I'm not surprised that they are swarming and back to regular weekly inspections for me!

 

[Insy]

Inspection on my hives today and all I can say is Wowzers.

Langstroth Hive consists of 3 brood boxes 2 brood is nearly full of pollen, stores and BIAS. Queen spotted nice and plump running wild dropping eggs . 3rd Brood box they've started drawing out 1 of middle frames so I placed that one on below to give them space and encourage to draw out.

National Hive consists of double brood + 1 drawn out empty super with queen excluder separating the brood from super, BIAS, moldy pollen on 2-3 frames which i'm letting them clean up and stores throughout. Queen also spotted running wild doing her business, the only thing I can never do with this colony is encourage them to fill the super with honey they insist on filling brood boxes with it and then swarming cause lack of space to lay.

The national Hive which end of last season had a really small split in that I suspected died and didn't make it, turns out it wasn't a swarm that went in it was my small split haha they went into winter on like 3-4 frames lol opened today and i got a full brood box of stores and like 7 frames of BIAS with a healthy queen running around.

Looks like all 3 made it problem is I was thinking of going down to 1 this year lol, as I don't eat huge amount of honey and even my honey production from 1 hive last year I still got tons surplus lol.