Cast swarm

[Mike a]

Never paid to much thought to having a swarm in my garden before as I've always been called out to collect them until today. By the looks of it a small cast swarm may of taken a fancy to an old nuc with some very old frames in my garden. Will confirm later, at a guess I will predict no more than 3-4 national frames worth.

 

[enrico]

a real FREEBEE!!!!

 

[Silly Bee]

How do you know its a cast?

 

[Mike a]

How do you know its a cast?

I can only guess at the moment but its only a national nuc, a prime swarm is about 60% of the workers of a strong colony and they would never fit inside.

 

[VEG]

Cast swarms are "usually" smaller. You wont know 100% until you look a few days later to see if there are eggs there.

 

[RoofTops]

And if there are no eggs it probably was a cast. I suspect the queen will struggle to find many mature drones at this time of year. I have a few drones wandering around my colonies but most are still in sealed brood.

 

[Mike a]

Few pictures.

Since the start of the warm weather there has been up to 20 odd bees flying around my spare kit in the garden. My wife said at 8 oclock when she popped out to feed the birds that there was about 5 bees flying around. I then some what jokingly predicted I would be called out today for a swarm (with a smile)

About 10 oclock I took the following pictures. (similar numbers seen over the last few days)

About 12:30 a neighbour popped over to tell me there seems to be a lot of bees in our garden for the last 20 odd minutes. I smiled and said there was nothing to worry about its not a swarm... they have been in our garden for the last few days.

I looked out the window and then walked out in to the garden to see this

by the time I got the camcorder most of them were inside...

Happy days, time to buy a lotto ticket..

 

[Chris Luck]

So if it is a cast what happened and when to the Prime?

As I understand English a Prime Swarm is the first swarm of the current year with the old Queen, and early prime swarms, (in my experience), can be quite small.

Chris

 

[oliver90owner]

a prime swarm is about 60% of the workers of a strong colony

Lets have a bit of lattitude here.

Colony stuffed full of winter stores (been fed fondant all winter as well), perhaps in a WBC, swarming early due to no laying space is a possible scenario. I would suggest a prime swarm from that would fit in a nuc hive. Not for long, though.

As Rooftops says, if it has eggs after about a week it was a prime, if not - a cast. No point in guessing.

RAB

 

[Teemore]

This morning I heard reports of 4 swarms in the greater belfast area over the weekend... haven't heard if they were successfully hived or not.

 

[thurrock bees]

i got called out to a tiny cast today, they were walked in to a hive and will see what happens, i would say there is only a frame full of bees, not many at all

 

[Mike a]

May have to give the swarm I got away.
They are far to interested in their own busy lives than wanting to attack me. It just doesn't seem right to be able to stand within 10 feet and not be attacked..
Although I'm sure I can train them to attack on sight

 

[Teemore]

On Sunday I was shown a colony that was hived last summer and which is building up beautifully at present. The chap who was showing us around got us to park the car and he promptly hopped over a stone wall saying, "Come on to you see these bees". He had no veil, suit or gloves so I hopped over the wall after him just in time to see him lifting the crown board off a National that was full of bees and is just about ready for its first super! I was about 5 feet from the hive and the bees never bothered with either of us!

 

[Dishmop]

I stand in the garden quite a lot with my bees.

Wife does the gardening and puts washing out only a couple of metres away.

My free bees moved in last year in the same way as Mike A's..... Just a few visible at any given time during the day........ After a week they had drawn a lot of natural comb........and started to fill it...

 

[merylvingien]

I think i need to requeen mine, ALL of them

 

[psafloyd]

May have to give the swarm I got away.
They are far to interested in their own busy lives than wanting to attack me. It just doesn't seem right to be able to stand within 10 feet and not be attacked..
Although I'm sure I can train them to attack on sight

10'? I regularly stand about 2' from the entrance of mine for anything up to 10 minutes so I can be nosey and have a look at them.

 

[george]

Much the same with mine , usually lift the roof and peer through the feed holes without too much trouble . Especially, early in the season .

 

[MuswellMetro]

10'? I regularly stand about 2' from the entrance of mine for anything up to 10 minutes so I can be nosey and have a look at them.

can i exchange them for one of mine that are about to get a new mummy, it would save me re-queening

you might need a telescope and a long pole with a claw on, to inspect them though, it more like 10yds that 10ft