Swarms in 2014 (suggestions)

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Somerford

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Location
Wiltshire, Somerset, S Glos & S Oxfordshire
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It would be interesting to build a poll that captures the number of swarms we have had. I want to get it right, so before building it, would like to create it with the help of the forum so we ask the right questions.

I think it should ask

Number of swarms captured by forum member....1 to 15
Number of swarms uncaptured (ie seen and lost in flight)
Number of swarms attended that had already located within a building

Anecdotally, alot seem to be locating in chimneys etc, and, if we got a good idea of the numbers, as a community, we could perhaps commit to each having a minimum 1 bait hive to help reduce this, as many are then destroyed as the homeowner doesn't want them in their home.

All help gratefully accepted

:thanks:

Regards

S
 
The sort of information I'd find interesting is those who take swarming as part of the cycle and collect or let them go as needed and those who try to keep the actual number emerging to an absolute minimum. You also have those who collect any swarms in the neighbourhood on behalf of associations or local authorities and those who have only their own hives.

I'd probably want to make a distinction between the swarms from your hives you prevented, recaptured or lost and those from elsewhere that went in your bait hives or you collected. Within that you might want to cover recent swarms in the open and older swarms that have established themselves in cavities and been cut out.. Not always easy to pin down exactly where swarms came from and many don't know or don't want to admit losing their bees in swarms.
 
The number of swarms a person sees, or captures etc., is going to be directly proportional to the density of hives within the immediate area. Therefore - in order for any poll to be meaningful - I suggest that a distinction needs to be made between urban and rural beekeepers.

Even then it's not straightforward, as some beekeepers will be responding to calls from a wider catchment area than others. In rural Lincolnshire, for example, I travel up to 25 miles for swarm collection - that's 100 miles total for two visits. You could cover an awful lot of London with that kind of mileage !

Hope this comment helps, rather than just muddying the waters ...
LJ
 
I agree with little john, the furthest I have gone is 1 mile, ive had three within half a mile!!! (Not mine)
 
It is important to identify if they are from your own hives or somewhere else. My biggest swarm in my garden this year wasn't mine!
Bet you wished you never asked!
 
Also captured, left in a box to collect later in the day & absconded...
 
Also captured, left in a box to collect later in the day & absconded...

last week one absconded within 48 hours from a 14x12 box from a Cut out even leaving open brood fixed into frames (four hours getting it out by two beekeepers)

I've come round to the idea of putting a QX under the brood for the first couple of days after hiving … (to prevent an unframed QX drooping open at the entrance, use an entrance reducer - or a nice framed QX!)

… and, using a Paynes poly nuc as a skep, once Q is inside and they are trooping in, the entrance disc will be rotated to the QX position. (Seems like that is what its there for!)

Always something new to learn! :rolleyes:
 
After the swarm is hived and most of the bees have gone in I place a bit of grass covering the entrance, a few hours later the grass has gone and never had a swarm abscond (yet) touch wood
 

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