Swarm

[Chris58]

Just a question, here in central France, our neighbour, yesterday afternoon had a huge swarm settle in her garden -unfortunately they had moved off before I got there. They were apparently a complete swarm, not a small cast.
Has anyone heard of this at this time of year?
We did have a terrific storm last night and we are talking about major wind, thunder & lightening and hailstones. Could this be a reason of the swarm beforehand?

 

[Chris Luck]

Last week...

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=13328

Not huge but with a mated Queen that went straight into egg production.

Chris

 

[oliver90owner]

If it was a swarm, it would have been intiated well over a week previously. Bees are very good at getting organised before the actual event. Although the weather may have played a part in the actual timing of the swarm, an isolated thunderstorm is unlikely to have had much bearing on that swarm being produced.

Regards, RAB

 

[Nic Rhodes]

took a cast this week. Enough to fill a mating hive well!

 

[tonybloke]

collected a swarm on Monday eve in Norfolk.

 

[itma]

And I collected and hived my very first ever swarm this (last) evening ...

 

[Chris Luck]

This is extraordinarily rare here in Central / South-western France, I've never heard of it before at this time of year BUT this has been a year extraordinaire - pas normale, I've never seen a year like it. Early June really is the last time you would expect to see a swarm of any type.

Chris

 

[iombeeman]

bees will try there luck like this,if its good weather they have a chance and survive and have produced another colony,if the weather is bad they die.
they take risks at this time of year sometimes it works,sometimes it does not.

 

[Chris58]

The storm that evening was perhaps the worst we had ever seen in such a short space of time. The wind must have been gusting over 60/70kph. Roof tiles off, trees down - we were lucky the hive was untouched. It was a very enclosed storm though. Went through our neighbours garden, but left our untouched - almost a tornado. We hope those bees found somewhere safe!

 

[zubzub]

could it bee that they had no choice and wasn`t a swarm but evacuation of storm damaged hive/home.

ZZ