Newbie with a swarm of someone wants it......

[Erichalfbee]

Now if I had been the chap who helped you out I would have gone further and kept the swarm for you till you got another box.
Great that you got some help though

 

[Nighthaunt]

Will see you tomorrow afternoon - there are a couple of us on here going to the novices classes. Michael is the apiary manager, he and Wendy have been running the classes. A few of us got a bit lost - the classes through the field gate and round the corner to the left

 

[W0otz]

Yup, will see you tomorrow too. Don't worry about losing the swarm - when I arrived last week we were watching a swarm, I believe from one of Michael's hives, just settling in a tree.

Thinking about it one of the club's hives had been queenless for too long and has drone laying workers, which is pretty much unrecoverable. I wonder if that's where your swarm will end up?

 

[OhBeehave]

Will see you tomorrow afternoon - there are a couple of us on here going to the novices classes. Michael is the apiary manager, he and Wendy have been running the classes. A few of us got a bit lost - the classes through the field gate and round the corner to the left

That’s fantastic, it’s a small world! I look forward to meeting you.

 

[OhBeehave]

Yup, will see you tomorrow too. Don't worry about losing the swarm - when I arrived last week we were watching a swarm, I believe from one of Michael's hives, just settling in a tree.

Thinking about it one of the club's hives had been queenless for too long and has drone laying workers, which is pretty much unrecoverable. I wonder if that's where your swarm will end up?

If they have ended up there they are going to be happy and very well looked after! I look forward to seeing you tomorrow

 

[Nighthaunt]

That’s fantastic, it’s a small world! I look forward to meeting you.

My turn for baking cakes this week - ginger cake (on left) and boiled fruit cake (on right).

 

[OhBeehave]

View attachment 26488

My turn for baking cakes this week - ginger cake (on left) and boiled fruit cake (on right).

I better prime my wife for next week as my baking skills are on par with swarm detection!

 

[Worker bee]

Hi, I’m an absolute newbie!! Anyway, we got our hive set up in April with a nucleus and I have just come home and found that they have swarmed! Due to my lack of experience I have not got round to purchasing a second brood box or hive for such an event as I thought I had plenty of time starting with a new queen and nucleus
So if anyone wants them we are between Ashford and Canterbury in Kent. Postcode is TN25 6BJ.
They are currently in a tree approx 7 foot off the ground near the hive and easy to get to.

Let me guess you was told to check once a week and you missed it?

 

[OhBeehave]

Let me guess you was told to check once a week and you missed it?

I read that swarms don’t normally happen first year and for some reason I also decided I would then leave them alone for a few weeks and stop poking around like a kid at Christmas. Clearly wrong on both counts....should have done some research

 

[Worker bee]

I read that swarms don’t normally happen first year and for some reason I also decided I would then leave them alone for a few weeks and stop poking around like a kid at Christmas. Clearly wrong on both counts....should have done some research

Everyone gets told that and they most likely end up losing a swarm. Not your fault you did what you was told

 

[Nighthaunt]

I read that swarms don’t normally happen first year and for some reason I also decided I would then leave them alone for a few weeks and stop poking around like a kid at Christmas. Clearly wrong on both counts....should have done some research

It might be worth reading The bad beekeepers club by Bill Turnbull - everyone makes mistakes and Bill explains some of his rather dramatic ones - what it does show is dust yourself off and everything can be sorted

 

[Nighthaunt]

On a brighter note cakes done for tomorrow - will only be bringing half the fruitcake as a bit too much cake otherwise

 

[Worker bee]

It might be worth reading The bad beekeepers club by Bill Turnbull - everyone makes mistakes and Bill explains some of his rather dramatic ones - what it does show is dust yourself off and everything can be sorted

Very true I have a customer who has three broods of bees from a three frames of bees took late last season from one of my late splits that queened really late. He took it as a gift because his nuc swarmed multiple times. Now he has a good hive. He done what I told him this season and he is about to split his hive into six. talk about having your cake and eating it. Oh and he didn't combine it he wanted to see if he got a queen in his original hive. So three broods from three frames built up from September. Outrageous claims

 

[Moobee]

You might find the Haynes Manual of Beekeeping an easier read in the first year as it takes you through the beekeeping year in easy stages... Hooper is a good reference book but ... you need to be up and running fast and Haynes will get you up to a basic standard by which time you will understand what Hooper is talking about ..

Sound advice. Someone recommended I read David Cramp’s Practical Manual of Beekeeping before I started. It may as well have been written in Chinese. Haynes manual is excellent and what our BKA used on our zoom training course this year.

 

[Moobee]

The bees build up (and swarm) in spring when the going is good, much like many other animals that reproduce in spring. As spring becomes summer numbers in the colony begin to decrease and they become less likely to swarm (though it can still happen)
Graph below shows the approx colony population through the year.

Src: Understanding Colony Buildup and Decline - Part 2 - Scientific Beekeeping

If the bees are looking to swarm they'll start making replacement queens in "swarm cells." Eggs are laid in these cells, hatch into larvae, and the cells are capped 7.5 days after laying. When the first queen cell is capped the old queen will swarm (weather permitting!). This is why, from April through to July, weekly inspections are required - if you see queen cells with eggs/larvae in them you can do something about it.

Given the weather, and slow build up of colonies, is it likely that everything has pushed on a month and swarming could still be possible well into August?

 

[Katherine]

I definitely went into this without fully researching, big mistake! We spent more time turning a paddock into a meadow for them and I should have just read a good book on the subject! So just ordered bees and honey by Ted Cooper.....5 weeks late! But already we do love having the bees and spend hours watching them around the hive.

If it's any comfort, as a newbee myself, who read around the subject and watched zillions of videos for a couple of years before getting bees, the theory doesn't really prepare you for opening up a hive on your own. A bit of inspecting with another bk first would probably go a long way. Starting in a Covid year didn't help with the mentoring...
That said, these baptisms of fire are very instructive. Learning by your mistakes never truer.
This forum is a great help and I should use it a bit more regularly.

 

[W0otz]

Given the weather, and slow build up of colonies, is it likely that everything has pushed on a month and swarming could still be possible well into August?

Swarming can happen later, it just gets less likely. Who knows though - the bees don't read the books!

 

[OhBeehave]

It might be worth reading The bad beekeepers club by Bill Turnbull - everyone makes mistakes and Bill explains some of his rather dramatic ones - what it does show is dust yourself off and everything can be sorted

That sounds like a bit of me, another book just ordered

 

[OhBeehave]

If it's any comfort, as a newbee myself, who read around the subject and watched zillions of videos for a couple of years before getting bees, the theory doesn't really prepare you for opening up a hive on your own. A bit of inspecting with another bk first would probably go a long way. Starting in a Covid year didn't help with the mentoring...
That said, these baptisms of fire are very instructive. Learning by your mistakes never truer.
This forum is a great help and I should use it a bit more regularly.

I have a habit of charging off headfirst into things so I am an expert.....in learning from a lot of mistakes

 

[user 20297]

I have a habit of charging off headfirst into things so I am an expert.....in learning from a lot of mistakes

I'm with you....a better policy than putting things off until you think all preparations are perfect. If I had spent a year being mentored first I'm not sure I would have continued with my own bees; as it is, I now can't imagine ever stopping.