Thought on swarms

[rockdoc]

Just wondered how those of you lucky enough to be inundated with calls for swarms deal with em, apart from giving them away? Without knowing the pedigree of queens in small casts, how do you decide which to knock on the head if you combine? I only ask as I now have four little casts doing well, and need to decide whether to leave them and increase to full size next year or combine.
Thanks all

 

[Queens59]

I haven't yet had a cast - so I am not sure. But I would not pass ANY hive on until I am sure...
1.It is disease free
2. There is a laying queen
3. The hive is likey to survive.

 

[susbees]

See how they build up...see how they behave. Combine as required?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Polyanwood]

Treat em for varroa, wait till they have filled nuc and stores and brood all ages, mark and clip if required then sell them to members on behalf of the association.
It is impossible to tell which queens are any good without spending a lot of time waiting to see the characteristics of the progeny. Just a quick look for chalk brood and test for temperament. Any that go for you if you wave your hand above the open box get squished and combined.

 

[For want of a better word]

Treat em for varroa, wait till they have filled nuc and stores and brood all ages, mark and clip if required then sell them to members on behalf of the association.
It is impossible to tell which queens are any good without spending a lot of time waiting to see the characteristics of the progeny. Just a quick look for chalk brood and test for temperament. Any that go for you if you wave your hand above the open box get squished and combined.

But who wants swarmy bees.... difficult one... I have a nice box of bees for you... free... good tempered, prolific honey producers,,, overwinter well,,, disease tolerant,,, but wait ,, they have just disappeared into the deep blue yonder!

 

[Polyanwood]

In London there seem to be beekeepers everywhere. Many of them not very well trained and not very well supported. They were given a hive and bees as part of one of the schemes, and have no spare kit and no idea how to reduce the risk of swarming. A lot of the swarms are coming from these people, but also from people who just got bees last year without doing a course or getting a mentor. I don't think they are particularly swarmy bees therefore, but association sells them cheaply so if people want to requeen they can.

One of the nice things about the swarm calls this year is that quite a few have been from beekeepers rather than the public. You can guarantee you'll get a cup of tea and a biscuit if you get called out by a beek, and quite often they invite you to inspect their colony too while you wait for the swarm to go into the box, so twice the fun.

 

[susbees]

One of the nice things about the swarm calls this year is that quite a few have been from beekeepers rather than the public. You can guarantee you'll get a cup of tea and a biscuit if you get called out by a beek, and quite often they invite you to inspect their colony too while you wait for the swarm to go into the box, so twice the fun.

2012? Wine. Coffee. Tea. Beer. Water. Bit tight on the food so far

 

[Ed Woods]

four calls on Sunday - 2 for honeybees, 1 for wasps and another for a nice clump of bees on an apple tree - a quick shake and caught most of them in my bait box

Ended up with a caught swarm and my daughter ended up with £30 as people kept giving her £10 as I refused to take anything for being called out

Yesterday they all swarmed out from my nuc - hovered above my neighbours garden for 15 minutes or so and returned to the box - assume this was a virgin Queen on her mating flight?

 

[mbc]

Any that go for you if you wave your hand above the open box get squished and combined.

If we could somehow stop imports and then all follow the above advice, I think beekeeping in the UK would improve immeasurably.

 

[For want of a better word]

Of the swarms collected.. moved into bait hives etc etc...


How many have you had with marked queens?

 

[rae]

A lot of this can be in the handling rather than the strain of bee. A simple example from this season. I have three hives with queens from the same source. One is located in London, the others are in Berkshire.

The London one is not making swarm preparations at all. It is just starting to fill its second super, forage appears to be scarcer.

One of the Berkshire ones swarmed, mainly because the forage was so good, they filled two supers in a week and ran out of space. Our fault. We got her back...

The other Berkshire one had 3 supers on, didn't run out of space, and hasn't swarmed.

 

[munch]

Very good point Rae, I think a lot of hobby bee keepers have just been caught out by the change in weather and forage. I think it might have been a steep learning curve this year.

I just hope people learn from there mistake,we have all messed things up over the years and it is very down heartening.Hopefully they will stick with it and become better beekeepers.

 

[Poly Hive]

There was a clear warning posted to assist the beginners.

However having the kit to hand is half, more than half the battle.

PH

 

[rae]

There was a clear warning posted to assist the beginners.

It also assisted the "not so beginners".

I've never seen supers filled so fast. Thankfully we have a pile of spares, but I have been frantically nailing frames together! We are doing the first extraction this weekend - looks like 12 supers.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Just wondered how those of you lucky enough to be inundated with calls for swarms deal with em, apart from giving them away? Without knowing the pedigree of queens in small casts, how do you decide which to knock on the head if you combine? I only ask as I now have four little casts doing well, and need to decide whether to leave them and increase to full size next year or combine.
Thanks all

If they're doing weell, I would see how they get on if you've got the hive space. Come Spetember you can kill the worst queens and combine.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Yesterday they all swarmed out from my nuc - hovered above my neighbours garden for 15 minutes or so and returned to the box - assume this was a virgin Queen on her mating flight?

Quite likely.

 

[rockdoc]

Thanks HeeBee
Yes, I've got the space and have had a great time collecting swarms. Its often a great opportunity to educate the public a little bit about the craft. It was also as a result of a small swarm last year that I've ended up with a very fine, well mannered and prolific queen. I'll see how they go and combine later as you suggest.

 

[REDWOOD]

I collected a swarm last year with a virgin queen and 7 weeks later they produced a single queen cell, OK I thought supersedure and it was and thought they would settle down this year but swarm cells everywhere, AS Sunday and really thinking about re-queening a swarmy colony