Induced Feral Swarms

[The Hyde Ranger]

I have been thinking (not always a good thing) If there are feral bees in a tree and some sugar syrup was placed close by for the foragers would they fill up the laying space for the Queen and be induced to swarming early, if then they could be attracted into a bait hive this would produce a new colony of bees with plenty of time to build up before the end of the season, would this be too detrimental to the feral colony and if not How early could this be done, if this is possible and would not have an adverse affect on the original colony it would be much better than the risk of trying to cut them out and they would be still in place to produce future swarmes,

 

[Tom Bick]

Sounds like a plan bit of a risk with the syrup it may encourage robing set up the bait hive they will probably swarm in any case and you might get lucky. But I say dont go to the measures of cutting them from the tree they are doing a natural thing observe then in the natural habitat and consider yourself lucky for that.
Good look

 

[The Hyde Ranger]

I should add that I have no intention cutting any bees from a tree I am however interested in catching some swarms if I'm lucky to get me started, (it's a long shot as usually if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all) and if I could create an advantage without any risk to the original colony it may be a good idea

 

[RoofTops]

Feral colonies naturally produce swarms so if you put a bait hive about say a hundred yards away you have a good chance of catching one, especially if you put a bit of old (clean) comb in the hive.

The worry about putting syrup close by is it will attract bees from several miles away and if the feral coloney has disease you risk spreading it. Of course the reverse could happen but generally in the UK we don't feed from open syrup tanks for this reason. It is something they do in the US, floating straw on the surface of the syrup to stop the bees drowning and we all know what problems they have with the health of their bees there.

 

[The Hyde Ranger]

Thanks for Your replys, since feeding is a big no no I'll scrap that idea (said thinking wasn't allways good) and it's back to being patient and increased number of bait hives with fingers crossed, Regards Nigel.

 

[Midland Beek]

Might be a good idea to contact you Local Council/Authority and put your name down for a swarm.

 

[jezd]

I think the open sugar feed thing is bad idea, frankly you will just increase wasp numbers as much as honey bee increases - regardless of feeding if you have bees local they will swarm. Catching a swarm is good fun/experience but its so hit and miss, all the swarms I caught ended up very feisty bees - not nice to handle. You are rolling a dice that they even stay with you, two that i caught simply bogged off

 

[MuswellMetro]

I think the open sugar feed thing is bad idea, frankly you will just increase wasp numbers as much as honey bee increases - regardless of feeding if you have bees local they will swarm. Catching a swarm is good fun/experience but its so hit and miss, all the swarms I caught ended up very feisty bees - not nice to handle. You are rolling a dice that they even stay with you, two that i caught simply bogged off

it is used by USA commercial farmers who have 100s of hives and cant be bothered to feed them idividually when they finish feeding on a single forage source like almonds


when the nectars stops..it's needed to keep the bees from starving while the load them up on lorries to go to the next forage

very bad practice, and idiot near me( non Beekeeper), feeds bees honey...EFB and AFB could so easily be spread, we got the bee inspector to talk to her, and now she feeds sugar water