Second Swarming Season

[melon]

Seeing as my swarms have drawn out virtually a whole brood box in about 7=10 days, and filled it, and have been building brace comb into the roof and there are loads of bees despite AS in other hives.....do you ever get a second swarming season when bee numbers build up so quickly.

What I am hoping is that the answer is No, and then I can relax a bit, where I know colonies have been split. I've run out of spare kit now.

So if the bees go into swarming mode in April, is it likely they'll want to swarm again, maybe at the end of May?

Hope you can understand the question. Thanks in anticipation for your tales of past experience.

Melon

 

[Moggs]

Hi Melon. Swarmy bees = swarms. If they are building so rapidly you should be prepared to give them enough space (i.e. super or even more brood space, for example brood and a half). But this will only delay the inevitable if the bees are of a swarmy nature and are determined. More kit for AS may well be necessary!

 

[melon]

I think my bees must be swarmy bees, as even when given double brood, they still get swarmy....I think it even encourages them, as they have far more space to lay, and hence the populations increase more rapidly.

Any hints and tips on how to reduce numbers of hives! I suppose I could sell some if I could find a buyer. I just can't keep getting bigger. I haven't got any more time, let alone any more money! I struggled with a manual extractor last year with eight hives, and I've now got 12 hives, so I'm going to need more supers and have great fun extracting this year!

I'll try and unite some this autumn, but can be difficult to squash two colonies back down to 1.

I think three hives would be manageable....what is the secret to keeping just a few hives?
Melon

 

[justme]

Hi Melon, I'm far from an expert, a newbee really but have you thought about requeening them, question mark.... Di:.)

Bloody keyboard!

 

[Moggs]

Hi M - pm sent...

 

[melon]

Hi,
No I've never done requeening....as they are very good bees really. I did have one hive who didn't swarm last year, and had supers stacked higher than I could reach. They have 1 or 2 queen cells this year, and are full to bursting. I think that they might be superceduring.(well I couldn't see the queen, yet she can't have swarmed as there are so many bees) Perhaps I should do a split from these, and try to get them to raise new queens, which I could use for requeening.Thank you.
Obviously, most of my hives are related.

But I really want to know if it is common for hives that have swarmed once to build up again and swarm in the same season? Have any experienced beeks seen this before or is this unusual?

 

[oliver90owner]

Melon,

As stated previously, some strains are prone to it, but the general rule is a new queen will not swarm in her first season and most queens only swarm once.

Regarding your 'supercedure type strain - don't split it and just let them make queen cells. Simply split some of the open brood away from the queen (super(s) in between) and the bees will make far better queen cells in a more controlled manner.

You could then use these cells to make up nucs, to unite with your swarmy colonies after removing the swarmy queens. Job done.

You don't really want your 'supercedure' derived queens mating with your swarmy bees, so a regular removal of drone brood from these hives might be an additional aid to improving your stocks from this point of view, (or just move them several miles!)

There might be other options to think about, which you might find more appealing.

Regards, RAB

 

[Frisbee]

But I really want to know if it is common for hives that have swarmed once to build up again and swarm in the same season? Have any experienced beeks seen this before or is this unusual?

I guess that would depend upon the season. If it was slow to get going...... i.e. a long cold spring, then the swarming season will eventually begin with a warm spell and land of plenty. This year has already been warm early and plenty of income, so the answer has to be yes and certainly to this year as everything is about 3 weeks earlier than average.

Frisbee

 

[melon]

Melon,

"Regarding your 'supercedure type strain - don't split it and just let them make queen cells. Simply split some of the open brood away from the queen (super(s) in between) and the bees will make far better queen cells in a more controlled manner."

Interesting idea. Not really heard of this before.

"You don't really want your 'supercedure' derived queens mating with your swarmy bees, so a regular removal of drone brood from these hives might be an additional aid to improving your stocks from this point of view, (or just move them several miles!)"

OK. There is quite a bit of drone brood in certain hives.


Tell me more about the other options that might be more appealing.
Thanks

 

[oliver90owner]

Interesting idea. Not really heard of this before.

Pretty well a standard method. Been on umpteen posts on here previously. Probably get lots of hits from a search using words 'induce' and 'supercedure'. Demaree, likewise.

Used as the standard method of artificially swarming in a Dartington and probably a beehaus - if they did not keep suggesting having two full colonies in the one hive!

Regards, RAB