"Swarmy" season - are we in for a second round?

[Sutty]

Everyone seems to be reporting early build-up and early swarming this year.
As the swarms are early I'm wondering whether my colonies will try to swarm a 2nd time in 2022.
Any of the more experienced beeks on here care to give an educated guess?
How long after a split before you start Checking for QCs again?

 

[gregior]

Some of my early splits are on 6 frames of brood again already so they will be very strong again pretty soon so I would say a 2nd round of swarming is very possible this year. Probably not until mid July for mine.

 

[gwt_uk]

All 5 of my colonies have had swarm prep this year. I hope they/the splits don’t try it again! I am out of kit and space!!

 

[Sutty]

All 5 of my colonies have had swarm prep this year. I hope they/the splits don’t try it again! I am out of kit and space!!

I've had to buy more kit.
No space possibly a problem for me too if I have to expand more.
Could stack one colony on top of another if desperate!!

 

[Wilco]

I've had to buy more kit.
No space possibly a problem for me too if I have to expand more.
Could stack one colony on top of another if desperate!!

This is what I do with wooden nucs, strongest lowest with thin ply between them and some of the heat can carry up to help the weaker as well as insulating the stronger.

 

[Sam G]

We've also had to buy more last minute frames, nucs etc due to multiple swarms this year, despite early splits! One hive swarmed 2nd week of April and has had 4 cast swarms since, despite us trying to remove excess queen cells throughout this period. Luckily we caught the prime and 2 of the casts at least!

 

[Erichalfbee]

You should have to search for queen cells for only a week after a split

Did you shake all the bees off the frames?
They hide those queen cells really well sometimes.
I’ve been caught out this year.

 

[Sam G]

You should have to search for queen cells for only a week after a split

Did you shake all the bees off the frames?
They hide those queen cells really well sometimes.
I’ve been caught out this year.

We definitely got caught out with hidden cells, largely because it's my husband doing the work while I'm trying to help at arms length with me waiting for the immunotherapy treatment. I finally insisted on taking a closer look myself this week and found at least another 8 queen cells, 3 of which were now old and empty. They were tucked away in comb towards the sides and not along the bottom where my husband had been looking. It's been a very different year with Matt having to do all the hands on stuff instead of me

 

[Erichalfbee]

We definitely got caught out with hidden cells, largely because it's my husband doing the work while I'm trying to help at arms length with me waiting for the immunotherapy treatment. ………………,It's been a very different year with Matt having to do all the hands on stuff instead of me

Yes it must be. I hope you can get on that course soonest.
I know from personal experience how frustrating it is looking over your assistant’s shoulder.

 

[Sutty]

We definitely got caught out with hidden cells, largely because it's my husband doing the work while I'm trying to help at arms length with me waiting for the immunotherapy treatment. I finally insisted on taking a closer look myself this week and found at least another 8 queen cells, 3 of which were now old and empty. They were tucked away in comb towards the sides and not along the bottom where my husband had been looking. It's been a very different year with Matt having to do all the hands on stuff instead of me

Get him to shake the bees off & bring you the frame a few metres away?

 

[enrico]

We've also had to buy more last minute frames, nucs etc due to multiple swarms this year, despite early splits! One hive swarmed 2nd week of April and has had 4 cast swarms since, despite us trying to remove excess queen cells throughout this period. Luckily we caught the prime and 2 of the casts at least!

If you can't find all the queen cells, find one good one and handle that frame with care and shake bees off the other frames to check properly. Yes you will upset the bees but if you are quick and efficient then it isn't too bad!
Sorry Sutty, crossed in the post!

 

[Sutty]

I find a common hiding place is in the bottom corner of the frame but just within the frame where they often remove a bit of comb

 

[Erichalfbee]

I find a common hiding place is in the bottom corner of the frame but just within the frame where they often remove a bit of comb

Yes they like holey areas for sure
You can make them draw queen cells if you scrape the frame down to the midrib under a batch of eggs if they are in the mood

If you can't find all the queen cells, find one good one and handle that frame with care and shake bees off the other frames to check properly. Yes you will upset the bees but if you are quick and efficient then it isn't too bad!

My SBI is brilliant at this. Shakes the frame inside the hive and hardly a bee comes out. I wish I could do it like that.

 

[Sam G]

Get him to shake the bees off & bring you the frame a few metres away?

We tried something kiiiind of like this the first time and I just couldn't see enough, and I think he needs a bit more confidence in shaking bees from frames so the frames were never really clear during that first post swarm inspection unfortunately

 

[Erichalfbee]

You’ll get there. If the worst comes to the worst and you have one or two emerged QCs just let all the others out not missing a single one.

 

[Sam G]

You’ll get there. If the worst comes to the worst and you have one or two emerged QCs just let all the others out not missing a single one.

Thanks hopefully i got them all on that last inspection, I feel paranoid about it! I don't want to keep going in and disturbing them

 

[Erichalfbee]

Don’t worry. Bees survive a lot of our interference.

 

[johncorne]

Yes they like holey areas for sure
You can make them draw queen cells if you scrape the frame down to the midrib under a batch of eggs if they are in the mood


My SBI is brilliant at this. Shakes the frame inside the hive and hardly a bee comes out. I wish I could do it like that.

A long time ago Clive de Bruin showed how to do a "double tap" to get the bees off the frame. Hard to describe in words but essentially accelerate the frame downwards with thumbs and allow a gap to the index finger. When the thumb stops pressing down, frame crosses the gap and hits a now stationary index finger, resulting in a fast deceleration. Try it first with an empty frame

Jc

 

[Erichalfbee]

A long time ago Clive de Bruin showed how to do a "double tap" to get the bees off the frame. Hard to describe in words but essentially accelerate the frame downwards with thumbs and allow a gap to the index finger. When the thumb stops pressing down, frame crosses the gap and hits a now stationary index finger, resulting in a fast deceleration. Try it first with an empty frame

Jc

I’ll try that. Thankyou.

 

[blackcloud]

I had swarm prep very early and had to split every colony
I was hoping they've got it over with but most boxes are now building right back up hard again.
No more kit ,no more room..
Some of these colonies were a truly pitiful size just 8 weeks ago.