Is this a swarm?

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Hazem

New Bee
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
28
Reaction score
0
Location
London, uk
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
9
Hi guys,

While I was checking my bee's this morning I saw what appears to be a swarm. I took these photos. Please tell me what you think. I'll be going back to hive them in the travel box that you can see in one of the photos.

Thanks!
 
Small but I would say they were a swarm.

Let us know how things go.

GL
 
Look's like it to me.

Nice and easy to collect. :)
 
what is the difference between a swarm and a cast then please?
 
what is the difference between a swarm and a cast then please?

Nothing. They're both swarms.

However, a 'prime swarm' contains a mated Queen and a 'cast/secondary swarm' usually contains a virgin queen that needs to get mated before she can come in to lay.
 
what is the difference between a swarm and a cast then please?

a swarm has the old queen and is the prime swarm and leaves normally after the QC is capped ( 8 days from egg) but prior to when the first virgin ermerges ( but remember they are Bees,sometime it is after hatching) ,this leave a virgin queen to take over the hive

if there are other queen cells then these can swarm as castes with the virgin queens, if theses virgins are not kill by the first new queen as they hatch
 
Last edited:
Guess what?

Went back an hour later only to find that they have gone.
50 yards down the plot a saw swarm gathering on a branch. I do not think it is the same one as it looks much bigger. Got it on a big carton and hived straight away. this is the documentation as taken by my daughter who was helping me.
 
That looks a nice one, congrats, how many frames are they covering?

PH
 
Humph....tally so far, one in Bucks (we're in mid-Wales), one here (16yo recovered 30 bees in the end from two of our rooms...false alarm that cost me dinner in Brum :(), and now one in a cavity wall 30 miles away and it's deluging all week.

Why does everyone else get nice swarms???
 
Humph....tally so far, one in Bucks (we're in mid-Wales), one here (16yo recovered 30 bees in the end from two of our rooms...false alarm that cost me dinner in Brum :(), and now one in a cavity wall 30 miles away and it's deluging all week.

Why does everyone else get nice swarms???

Because we worship and chant to the beegods every evening!
 
Because we worship and chant to the beegods every evening!

creation_of_adam.jpg


Right...
 
P.H. I will have a look at them tomorrow morning, then I will tell you how many frames they are covering. I hived them in a 11 frames BB that is partly drawn with few frames of stores.
 
Injured queen?

I have a smaller cast/swarm on the floor near the hive. It started with a queen attracting a few bees. She appeared to be injured, dragging a leg and her wings looked ineffective, and she appeared to move slightly on one side..

More bees appeared, but only about 30, and i couldn't find the queen. Many of the bees had their backsides in the air as if protecting something. They then moved 4 m and started again. This morning there are a couple of hundred in a mass on the floor. I can't see a queen but probably in their somewhere?

There have been a lot of bees moving around on the front of the hive. They swarmed two weeks ago and have produced queen cells.

Any advice
 
P.H. I will have a look at them tomorrow morning, then I will tell you how many frames they are covering. I hived them in a 11 frames BB that is partly drawn with few frames of stores.

I hope you searched through the box first and found the queen :)

attachment.php


Only kidding but seriously if you do see her put her in a queen clip or cage for a day or two, may help with keeping the swarm in your hive. :cheers2:

Nice pics btw
 
Back
Top