Swarms not as plentiful this year

[Kali]

Don't know where you are in the country but in a week or two were expecting solid daily late teen temperatures for a few weeks..
We're I am you can set your clock to the swarm season .... its usually from 22nd of May onwards and peaks around 31st .... I've even seen them in the pouring rain

 

[Curly green finger's]

Don't know where you are in the country but in a week or two were expecting solid daily late teen temperatures for a few weeks..
We're I am you can set your clock to the swarm season .... its usually from 22nd of May onwards and peaks around 31st .... I've even seen them in the pouring rain

If your talking to me ?south Shropshire and swarming starts with me now on the 16th of may and lasts for around a month , a few days early this year , it might of been earlier if I hadn’t split colony’s or used swarm prevention .

Seems to be a regular date if not a few days earlier this season .

I checked quickly through four today and every queen was unmarked yet all mine are marked either white yellow gold or pink.

Ohhum…….. I lost 5 last year I wonder if they are from these Bees

 

[RogerIvy]

I think all that is about to change. The weather is sunny and the weekend is four days away

Do the bees know about weekends?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Do the bees know about weekends?

Hobbyists who work tend to look at their colonies at the weekend.

 

[MillMeadow]

A lot of interest in the swarm trap at home yesterday with a few scuffles breaking out at the entrance at one point.

Hoping to have chance to see them arrive from distance similar to last year.

I'd caught a few by this time last year but this is the first real interest that's been shown in any location for this year.

 

[Nik]

Same here last year from the 16th of may until mid June I retrieved 7 swarms , still all to play for or not , as long as I’m not inspecting the bottom box of a demaree again and watching a swarm fly down the fields .

That exact thing happened to me on Saturday. I just hope they will find the bait hive.

 

[Fellstoflats]

Spectacular prime swarm boxed up this morning. Torn 50/50 between taking what I'd got, and waiting for any returning foragers/scouts, I left it.

Just had a message to say they'd up and left. Bugger.

 

[jeff33]

I am on my 5th AS so far...no swarm yet tho

 

[simonwig]

While volunteering at local nature reserve the feral colony in the wall of the visitor centre (which I’m planning to try and trap out shortly) swarmed.

I was at the far end of the reserve when I got the call. When I got back the bees had all gone back in. Strange I thought, can’t be a clipped queen…why have they given up?

Anyway looked around for a while and found a small cluster of bees on the ground, and sure enough, the queen was in the middle of the group. Looking closely she has a very tatty wing, so probably couldn’t fly.


Caged the queen and have introduced her to a nuc. Meanwhile bait hive out and I’m waiting for the first real swarm which will be headed by a virgin in a week or so. We can debate if it will be a prime or a cast but doesn't really matter, a rose by any other name.....

Simon

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

We can debate if it will be a prime or a cast

no debate, no swarm has left as yet - mated queen or not, the first swarm to leave the colony is a prime (clue is in the name)

 

[Sutty]

no debate, no swarm has left as yet - mated queen or not, the first swarm to leave the colony is a prime (clue is in the name)

A swarm has left, even if most went back & the next one will be headed by a virgin - so it's a cast.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Spectacular prime swarm boxed up this morning. Torn 50/50 between taking what I'd got, and waiting for any returning foragers/scouts, I left it.

Just had a message to say they'd up and left. Bugger.

Yeah I had one do that today, knocked them into a box and left them for the straglers to go in and when I went back tonight the box was empty! That was the last of 5 I've dealt with today and none were mine!

 

[Fellstoflats]

Yeah I had one do that today, knocked them into a box and left them for the straglers to go in and when I went back tonight the box was empty! That was the last of 5 I've dealt with today and none were mine!

Very frustrating, as it's the first call I've had this season that didn't involve extracting from a building in some way!

A few nice easy swarms are all I ask, then I'd be happy to go back to peeling cladding off buildings!

Still, 2 traps were showing a lot of activity this afternoon, so that's promising.

 

[Erichalfbee]

A swarm has left, even if most went back & the next one will be headed by a virgin - so it's a cast.

No it hasn't. The queen hasn't left with a swarm. She couldn't fly so the bees went home. The few she has with her are simply attendant bees.
I watched an almost identical event at my apiary. Bees swarmed in to a tree for five minutes then all went back. I found the old queen with tattered wings on the ground outside the entrance with a few bees

 

[Sutty]

No it hasn't. The queen hasn't left with a swarm. She couldn't fly so the bees went home. The few she has with her are simply attendant bees.
I watched an almost identical event at my apiary. Bees swarmed in to a tree for five minutes then all went back. I found the old queen with tattered wings on the ground outside the entrance with a few bees

Well it's still a viable colony once hived....
It's semantics really. We know what is happening!

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

It's semantics really. We know what is happening!

No semantics, no communication. On the face of it, 'prime' doesn't seem to say anything about the queen.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A swarm has left

it didn't though as it quickly returned.
if you walk out of the front door in the morning but return in the evening, do you claim you have left home?

 

[Erichalfbee]

On the face of it, 'prime' doesn't seem to say anything about the queen.

No. It doesn’t. Maybe it’s more about the size? Relative to the original colony?

 

[The Poot]

it didn't though as it quickly returned.
if you walk out of the front door in the morning but return in the evening, do you claim you have left home?

I guess I would say I did leave and didn’t wholly return. It‘s as if I left my right leg behind and came home without it.
In this instance the queen left with a bunch of bees, constituting (to my mind) a small prime swarm.
The first swarm out, with the laying queen is a prime swarm - as you stated recently.
But who cares? Let’s hope they make it and live to fight another day.

 

[JamezF]

if you walk out of the front door in the morning but return in the evening, do you claim you have left home?

Frequently. Usually before I walk out of the front door

James