swarm collecting

[For want of a better word]

I must admit that it is no problem to get a beekeeper to collect the easybees.

### More difficult jobs I now tell the home owner / landlord to seek advice from their insurance company to remove bees.

I can see no reason to risk life and limb or being sued, just to collect a few free bees.

Yeghes da

 

[Teemore]

I took my name off the local swarm collectors list for 2016 as I was getting calls from people who were 60+ miles away from me. One or two people were "a bit put out" that i wasn't prepared to drop everything else and drive for well over an hour to see what they were faced with. These were the same people who would not send me a picture of the "bees" or look at the images of bees and wasps on the BBKA web site. I passed theri details to beekeepers who lived a lot closer to them and later learned that they had been called out to see hover flies and bumble bees.

 

[BeeJayBee]

17 phone calls later and still nobody would even answer their phone. ....

... As it's a Saturday I though this would be easy to find someone. Sorry it's a bit of a rant but I think it's a very poor show from the local bee keepers.

It's down to pure chance that this number of people weren't answering their phones at the time you were trying to call them, because not all of them will have been at the Detling show ground.

People work, so do shopping and have family time at the weekend, why would you expect anybody to be more free on a Saturday than Monday to Friday?

Agreed we should have time off but 17 phone calls and 5 to 10 possible more beekeeper at the show and none of them could spare 15 mins.

If you've ever worked at a show you'll know that it can take ten or more minutes to walk from a tent to the car park, then you have to sit in exit queues and then queue again to get back in. It takes a lot of time and effort to organise a show tent, so why would you expect somebody who's working in one, and who could be in the middle of explaining something about bees and beekeeping to a visitor, to stop what they're doing to walk out to collect a swarm when they could just as easily do it in the evening?

What's the point of putting your name on a list and not answering your phone, even 2 swarm coordinators didn't answer.

I go through my phone in the evening and check calls and will often phone numbers I don't recognise if they haven't left a message.

I don't think anybody should expect any volunteer to be at the end of a phone all day, every day.

 

[Outlander]

Nine swarm calls one day last week, it was mid week can't remember what day as book is not at hand. Village Girl, Corriena managed to have them all collected. So I'd like to say well done the beekeepers in the Norwich area.

 

[alldigging]

What would make the swarm collection list better and provide a service more effectively for concerned members of the public?

More information on identifying whether they're honey bees - a quick quiz perhaps where people click on various options and then get better information about what their 'hive of bees in the garden' might be ...

Prepare people with the info they need to tell swarm collectors.
And suggest they try to take a photo of the bees.

Giving people email options as well as a phone number on the list might help.

Example listing:
Me, M:078
Please send photo of bees via email to [email protected]
with information including: address, your phone number, when they arrived, how high they are, what access is like to area where they are.

Swarm coordinators would need a database of local people - either real or just in their head - but a good knowledge of local area so they can immediately think of the nearest available person.
And a list of newbies who might like to go and assist on a swarm collection and take the swarm as their first colony.
That would solve the kit issue that many people seem to run into as the season progresses - ensure that people with kit waiting can actually learn about collecting a swarm. It's a skill after all that many beekeepers will need to use at some point in their hobby.

 

[Vortex]

Associations running swarm lists and ensuring all "collectors" is the key to kit problems.
Last year the Association didn't send the list out to all collectors and finding out who was next on the "needs a swarm" was a pain in the neck. This year we all had copies of the list.
It's then just a case of running down the list, in what ever manner you chose, and the first person who answers their phone, and can take the swarm gets it.
I have 3 Nuc boxes I can use for collecting swarms and have only ever had 2 in use at once, and they usually get returned within 24-48hrs.

 

[sherwood]

non swarm collectors

As swarm co-ordinator of my association I often find it impossible to locate a body that is on the swarm list to collect swarms. One Sunday I spent 45 minutes trying to locate someone before giving up and collecting it myself from a considerable distance away.
I have also had people on the swarm collection list complaining to the association president that I haven't distributing calls to them. In one instance the individual was concerned that I had not called them out as the swarm was only over there back wall but not from their hive. Yet at the time of the call the person was working 20 miles away in a job they could not have left there work.
I will never give a swarm to a novice bee keeper as firstly I have no idea of their competitance level and secondly whether the bees have any diseases. I therefore end up giving them to experienced beekeeper or hiving them in an isolation apairy

 

[Gilberdyke John]

As swarm co-ordinator of my association I often find it impossible to locate a body that is on the swarm list to collect swarms. One Sunday I spent 45 minutes trying to locate someone before giving up and collecting it myself from a considerable distance away.
I have also had people on the swarm collection list complaining to the association president that I haven't distributing calls to them. In one instance the individual was concerned that I had not called them out as the swarm was only over there back wall but not from their hive. Yet at the time of the call the person was working 20 miles away in a job they could not have left there work.
I will never give a swarm to a novice bee keeper as firstly I have no idea of their competitance level and secondly whether the bees have any diseases. I therefore end up giving them to experienced beekeeper or hiving them in an isolation apairy

Speaking from a relatively healthy area, I've yet to find a swarm carrying disease. What's your experience amongst swarms you have collected? Or any other forum members?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Speaking from a relatively healthy area, I've yet to find a swarm carrying disease. What's your experience amongst swarms you have collected? Or any other forum members?

I've collected a fair few and they have all been healthy.
Some have been evil bees though..........

 

[SixFooter]

Personally, I think what puts people off answering the phone is the bumble bee calls. I get so many it's ridiculous. I don't mind if the caller got my number through the bbka website, but I object when they got it from a local authority or pest controller. These professionals, presumable on a salary, are expecting volunteer beekeeper to deal with a bee call irrespective of the situation. A lot seem to be under the impression that bees are protected and cannot be destroyed, but a beekeeper will remove them whatever type of bee they are. I almost always have to explain the difference between honey bees and bumbles The percentage of people who protest that they can't leave a bumble bee nest because they have young children/grand children/nephews & nieces etc is close to 100%.

People also lie. If they think they need to say something to get you to come out, they will. All in all, I can understand people not answering or screening calls.

 

[sherwood]

Speaking from a relatively healthy area, I've yet to find a swarm carrying disease. What's your experience amongst swarms you have collected? Or any other forum members?

I have not collected swarms with any diseases that I know of but have had a couple of narrow squeaks collecting swarms from areas which are reasonably close to areas later declared to have EFB ie within a 10 mile radius and I personnally know of at least 1 instance where a swarm collected in one area and moved to another was subsequently found to have EFB, The receiving area association now have an isolation apiary in place

 

[BeeJayBee]

I have not collected swarms with any diseases that I know of but have had a couple of narrow squeaks collecting swarms from areas which are reasonably close to areas later declared to have EFB ie within a 10 mile radius and I personnally know of at least 1 instance where a swarm collected in one area and moved to another was subsequently found to have EFB, The receiving area association now have an isolation apiary in place

Treatment for an average colony with EFB is a shook swarm, which means the bees have to start all over again drawing comb and raising new brood. A swarm does exactly this, and it's one reason why a swarm shouldn't be fed for the first three days because they lock any transferable disease carried in their gut into the new comb.

Isolation apiaries aren't just to check for notifiable disease, they're also a means of checking temperament and a queen's fecundity whilst a swarm is developing into a properly viable colony. These apiaries are usually run by one or more experienced beekeepers who won't hang about wondering whether or not to replace a queen.

By the way, it isn't a 10 mile radius. Why would it be when most bees will only travel up to a mile and a half when foraging, and hence the 3ft/3 mile 'rule' for moving colonies.

 

[sherwood]

Treatment for an average colony with EFB is a shook swarm, which means the bees have to start all over again drawing comb and raising new brood. A swarm does exactly this, and it's one reason why a swarm shouldn't be fed for the first three days because they lock any transferable disease carried in their gut into the new comb.

Isolation apiaries aren't just to check for notifiable disease, they're also a means of checking temperament and a queen's fecundity whilst a swarm is developing into a properly viable colony. These apiaries are usually run by one or more experienced beekeepers who won't hang about wondering whether or not to replace a queen.

By the way, it isn't a 10 mile radius. Why would it be when most bees will only travel up to a mile and a half when foraging, and hence the 3ft/3 mile 'rule' for moving colonies.

Yes I am aware of the proximity and the likely travel distance but I was merely instancing how near the disease was and I have known swarms travel a lot more than a mile and a half to find a new home personally following them through one village to another. Swarming bees in my experience can travel further than they might do if they were foraging.