Do bees attract bees?

[Nakedapiarist]

Until I had bees it'd been years since I'd seen a swarm. I had the embarrassment of my own bees ending up in a neighbours tree a few weeks ago and this weekend I was called to two swarms.

I immediately checked my own hives - no sign of swarming there, the only colony with a queen cell is the one I've split and I seem to have the usual number of bees. Also, my bees aren't that yellow.

First swarm was a PITA - same tree as mine ended up in but very high up, on several branches and huge - I called in help from the swarm hotline for that, took us a failed attempt on Saturday then an another go on Sunday morning to get them down.

Second swarm, just as I was settling down to do some DIY on a wall about 10m from the tree and easy to get to. For those I just swept them into the box I was using as swarm trap ( baited with lemongrass oil )

So why these two swarms so close to me? I'm adamant they're not mine and the swarm coordinator that came out agrees with me.

I'm getting to know the locals quite well....

 

[pargyle]

It seems the answer is yes ... in more ways than one ...

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=33821&page=3

Post #24 on ....

 

[enrico]

I would say yes.....foreign swarms appear in my apiary area regularly. See them coming in from elsewhere before they settle. Sounds like Kent!!!.
E

 

[oliver90owner]

Likely local crosses from your earlier lost swarms now swarming?

Keep a look out for bees now you are actually keeping some? Might be a good idea to watch for other local nests now you know what, and when, to look for (activity close to potential sites). Orientation flight times are often a good giveaway of a previously unobserved colony.

 

[itma]

I would have said no - until a couple of weeks ago.


I had a small cast turn up in the tall hedge overlooking my garden apiary.
Thing is, I'm pretty sure I haven't lost a cast. Not least because the cast is so small in comparison to the size of the colonies that were raising QCs/virgins. Were it not for the small size, I'd be prepared to say I'd just missed an extra QC. As it is, I'm a bit mystified.

 

[Dishmop]

Small swarm that settled at front of my house came from the opposite direction to if they had come the shortest distance from my back garden......but then I dont know if they did a couple of circuits first.

I have always noticed that my bees dont take much notice of the flowers in my garden. They leave the hive and fly off on what is to them is probably a satnav programmed route.

I did see a bee the other day on a flower near my back door, and when it flew off it went in opposite direction to the hives, one of which was 3ft away..but was it somebody else's bee or one of mine going to fly around the estate first because that was the revese route of how it got there?

 

[user 6228]

last year had a prime swarm land in the garden. In a bush 4m away from an existing occupied hive & 4m from my outdoor stock of brood boxes & supers. From the size of the swarm and the state of other hives in the apiary it definitely wasnt one of ours. This swarm once hived was laying by the next day on newly drawn comb.
They may be attracted to the unused kit thats in lots of apiaries

 

[td4bees]

yes as it says in the old old bee books (bees will be where bees have been) so they are attracted to the current sites

 

[Nakedapiarist]

Likely local crosses from your earlier lost swarms now swarming?

Keep a look out for bees now you are actually keeping some? Might be a good idea to watch for other local nests now you know what, and when, to look for (activity close to potential sites). Orientation flight times are often a good giveaway of a previously unobserved colony.

I've never lost a swarm yet! - Mind you I've only been keeping them a couple of months. Prior to this we did get honeybees in the garden and I've often wondered about tracking them to their source. I've been looking hopefully in hollow trees in the area but no luck yet....

 

[mbc]

Bees look to repopulate old nest sites, and also view places where other bees survive as potentially good areas where they could be successful too.
Willie Robson touches on this in his charming little book reflexions on beekeeping, where he goes a step further and says colonies retain a memory from previous seasons of where other colonies have been and go and check them out in the spring to see if they're still occupied.

 

[For want of a better word]

YES..... particularly if colonies are sited over a Leyline.

Yeghes da

 

[Thymallus]

YES..... particularly if colonies are sited over a Leyline.

Yeghes da

Leyline! Did you forget the smiley or were you being serious?

 

[Dishmop]

I've never lost a swarm yet!

Is that a wise thing to say?

 

[Nakedapiarist]

Is that a wise thing to say?

I did say yet

As for leylines - what about Leyland? - we're spitting distance from the old factory site

 

[Dishmop]

I did say yet

As for leylines - what about Leyland? - we're spitting distance from the old factory site

Sunday lunchtime then is my bet..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The dog found a swarm in the garden hedge (just a few yards from the home apiary) Thursday evening, nice size, now ensconced in a corner of the apiary - the usual worriting about which hive it had come from - checked yesterday, all my queens home and laying - so it ain't one of mine!

 

[Teemore]

My father picked up a rather large swarm in one of my out apiaries on Thursday past. It conveniently clustered on a leaning fencepost. A check of the hives on that site confirmed it wasn't out of any of my colonies. There are two possible sources nearby and a third a little further afield. Swarm is now in quarantine.

 

[busybee53]

From 1996 onwards there were no swarms where my apiary is now. In 2009 a swarm arrived and began to make wild comb on a shrub, almost at ground level.

That's what got me into beekeeping and after doing the course and being supervised I eventually got the apiary set up in 2012. Since then 5 swarms have arrived within 100 yards of my bees, 4 within a few feet. None were mine (till I hived them). Bees go to bees - plus there are a lot more swarms around these days.

The two swarms so far this year arrived within a week of each other. The second lot, a cast, decided to land above the entrance of the hive the first swarm was in. Odd getting them into a nuc box while the other swarm was going in and out of the entrance as usual.

 

[REDWOOD]

I would say yes, if you think about a bait hive with a bit of old comb that attracts bees then a few hives emitting the same odour will have the same effect.

 

[Jaytee]

Ive had 3 swarms in 4 days arrive in my apiary this week 2 of them prime swarms and definitely not mine. I had eight last year all in the same area so I'd say yes bees are attracted to bees. In August last year I noticed bees flying from a hedge on the edge of the field and on cutting lots of growth away a colony was found living in wild comb. I managed to cut this out and wire the comb into frames and the colony came through the winter. I'm now wondering if I have another feral colonies living nearby so will start searching.