I wish I hadn't ...

[RoseCottage]

I have taken 2 swarms in 3 days all within 200 yards of our hives. Not our girls though.

I discovered a property in the vicinity with 4, yes 4, colonies independently living in cavities in a barn at the back and a fifth living in a cavity over a doorway at the front.
The owner tells me that they have been undisturbed for 30 years as they have been doing nobody any harm. They are very gentle bees indeed.

The thatcher working on the property for the last 3 weeks told me that he personally has seen 3 swarms leave since he has been onsite. We think there have been 4 in total in the last month.

So today I took a medium size swarm from the leg of a wrought iron garden seat. I put them in a nuc wrapped in a sheet and set off for my hives.

My father-in-law built me an additional hive yesterday but today left for a week in the North. Yesterday's hive is for the swarm from 3 days ago...so once again I am kitless.

I thought about uniting the two swarms but decided it would too difficult to locate the queen in either colony and to squish her.

Instead I thought I would be generous and offer them free to a beekeeping neighbour. So I called them, made the offer which was accepted, and took the bees to them.

When I got there my neighbour was struggling for kit too but in the end we set off to their hives. The colonies appeared very quiet. My neighbour decided to check one of the hives to see whether a couple of frames could be removed for use with the swarm.

I was appalled by the sight we encountered. Only a couple of frames of bees, no sign of brood, and dozens of bees dead in the old, blackened, comb - many dead whilst hatching out.

My neighbour told me that they hadn't checked their hives for quite a while, thought they had lost a couple of queens, and thought the colony may have died as a result. I gently reminded them of the queen replacement processes and suggested that neglect had probably led to starvation.
My neighbour took honey away early in the year, never fed during the recent bad weather/june gap, and had probably lost a series of swarms and castes by leaving multiple queen cells within the colony.

I did give them the swarm but spent the afteroon regretting my decision.

Sam

 

[For want of a better word]

Hope you have revitalised his interest in beekeeping as opposed to keeping bees!

 

[beeatshellards]

yuor title sums it up i think , theres no excuse for negligence..

 

[newportbuzz]

better the demon you know.
prepare to deal with whatever is killing his colonys as your bees are proberly robbing out the honey

 

[oliver90owner]

your bees are proberly robbing out the honey

Ahhh! That's why you got such a good honey crop last year!

RAB

 

[Black Comb]

As I understand it you can "throw" 2 swarms together providing capture is within 3 or 4 days of each other and they will sort out the queens themselves. Never done it but intend to try this in future if I've ever lucky enough to get 2 swarms within 3 days.

 

[roche]

I did that in May. They were both from the same site, so may have been castes from the same colony. They went together with no visible problems and are now at 8 frames of brood and two supers...

 

[RoseCottage]

Rab,
Very funny you have a great memory or did I just go on about it too much. Last year the neighbour had EFB and the inspector had to destroy colonies as it was the worst he had seen in 20 years. Our girls were perfect but we moved them away anyway.

I hope that they will look after them but I have just been told they are off on holiday Monday for 10 days

Peter and Roche (sounds like a solicitors) I must try that if the opportunity presents itself again. I thought one queen would just take her girls and fly away...

All the best,
Sam