swarm

vampmeister · Jul 15, 2017

About a week ago some of my bees swarmed and today I have noticed that they have clustered at the base of an empty hive near the original hive. I am wondering if the bees will settle into the hive themselves or will it be better if I collected them and put them in the empty hive myself. I would be very grateful for any information you can give me, thank you.

viridens · Jul 15, 2017

You say an empty hive. Does it have frames and foundation? Whether they are your swarm from last week or have arrived from elsewhere it's odd that they prefer being outside to inside and haven't moved into that empty hive. So check for a reason why before collecting and dumping them in.
If there is no clear reason, Maybe the cast is Queenless and aimless, so look out for Q and evidence of Q once they are hived. -But I'm sure you would do that anyway! If they have been out there for a week then they should have built some comb by now...

It's not clear from your description whether they are around your bottom box or under it, but either way in mid July it is probably not a football-sized prime swarm, but a fairly small cast. You may want to consider merging them with the parent? hive unless you are keen to have two hives to overwinter.

Anduril · Jul 15, 2017

Are you sure it is your swarm, a week is a long time to be out and not find a home. If it is your swarm then they will be starving.

protheroe · Jul 16, 2017

I've seen a few swarms hanging outside hive then disappear.had one on Friday.shook into hive and they all came back out and hung off the front so I gave them a frame of larvae and shook them back in so they're staying in the hive now.

JWF · Jul 16, 2017

If you get them in a hive with a frame of BIAS you'll get two benefits :

1. You'll encourage a them to stay put.
2. You'll quickly know whether they're queenless as they'll immediately draw emergency queen cells on any eggs present if they are.

Erichalfbee · Jul 16, 2017

JWF said:
If you get them in a hive with a frame of BIAS you'll get two benefits :

1. You'll encourage a them to stay put.
2. You'll quickly know whether they're queenless as they'll immediately draw emergency queen cells on any eggs present if they are.

I'll certainly second that.
I had one big swarm I presumed to be a prime arrive at a bait hive.
The first thing they did was draw emergency queen cells. Saves all that hanging about for weeks wondering

vampmeister · Jul 19, 2017

Thank you for all your replies, the hive did have frames and foundation in it and I managed to collect the swarm an put it into the hive but a couple of days later the swarm had disappeared.