Who's lost a swarm then...........

[Pete D]

Come on own up...............who has lost a swarm, it still counts if you recaptured it.

I have lost 1 so far, thought I was in control and yesterday found out that one hive had gone.

This one was an Argentinian 2013 queen that I was given last year by a beek who was going to do any early split on his hive, but it didnt make it through the winter.
Very light bees and loads of drones from day one. The hive had 3 supers on.
Didnt want a new queen from them so removed all queen cells and united them across 2 hives, brood and 1 super to 1 hive and other 2 supers to another.

 

[HM Honey]

one of mine tried to swarm the other day. I had Demeree'd the colony and the day I was going to knock down all the swarm cells in the top box, the bees beat me to it and tried to swarm...

Fortunatley, the queen was between two queen excluders so she couldnt get out and the bees just went back in eventually.....

Does that count ?

 

[Pete D]

one of mine tried to swarm the other day. I had Demeree'd the colony and the day I was going to knock down all the swarm cells in the top box, the bees beat me to it and tried to swarm...

Fortunatley, the queen was between two queen excluders so she couldnt get out and the bees just went back in eventually.....

Does that count ?

Yes that counts !

 

[steve56616]

Me!!

 

[Jeff Buzz]

Checked a friends hive with him last thursday absolutely full of bees brood and 3 supers full of honey. Lots of capped off QC's. He swears he checked just 4 days before and no sign of QC,s so quite amazing really ;-).
Any how lucky man had not lost his queen so did a split and they have stayed put.

That would have been one heck of a big swarm the stuff dreams are made of.

 

[Chris B]

Slightly odd one a week ago.
Clipped queen in a small melon-sized swarm, 6ft up a tree. The colony it came from was still crammed with bees. I've had plenty of these mini-swarms with these clipped queens before, just never off the ground before.

 

[Pete D]

That would have been one heck of a big swarm the stuff dreams are made of.

Had a call yesterday at 17.30, arrived at 18.15 and they had just gone.......had a chat with the chap who called me and he produced his phone and showed me a picture of a huge swarm, showed me the branch it was on, few stragglers and 2 foot off the ground.........stuff of dreams.......

 

[einsteinagogo]

me!

last Thursday, the day before Inspection due, and ready for A/S with new hive, foundation.

Neighbour called, me drove home from work, in record time, and they'd gone, in 38 minutes from report!

 

[TOBY-3652]

not lost one [YET] but 22 more colonies to go.. only had 1 up to now that was going 2 swarm.. tried the snelgrove method.fingers crossed

 

[poshpikey]

Both my colonies had QCs but I ASd them. Have set up a couple of (mating) nucs from each. One of the old queens then had another charged qc. They are both last years queens. Both recently clipped and marked.

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Only a matter of time methinks. Four of seven colonies have been artificially swarmed in the past 3 weeks, I'm bound to have missed a sneaky QC somewhere!

 

[Ely]

Found some queen cups with eggs in yesterday. Thought I'd return in 3 days time to see if there is any royal jelly or if they have progressed. Dangerous I know

 

[Swarm]

Charged cells in a double brood today, selected a cell and marked the frame. Last frame checked revealed a sealed one dead centre of the comb, they must have made this as soon as I closed up last inspection. No great drama as queenie was safely tucked into a nuc.
Only the one hive as of yet.

 

[raathistle]

AS'd one only for them to swarm about a week later . Luckily I caught them after they settled about a foot off the ground in a blackcurrant bush. Hopefully that's the only one, the other 2 AS have so far gone to plan

 

[Tomo]

Yesterday was fun. Bank holiday Monday did AS on overwintered colony which was on the last week of bailey change. Put HM into brand new commercial BB with all new foundation. Put her and frame of brood with absolutely 100% certain no Qc's. Yesterday checked the box only to find 6 freshly sealed QC's on the bottom of a brand new frame! That's 7 full days! HM was gone, luckily spotted a medium sized swarm getting bigger by the minute 6ft away in the bottom of a bush. My Mrs spotted HM once I got them onto a hive lid as there wasn't room for anything else. Put her back into spare hive (HM that is, not the Mrs, she gets flowers!) and smoked/encouraged the rest to fly so hopefully the damage is limited. How do you explain the timing?

 

[Chris Luck]

Loads naturally, 10 so far this year from mine and a couple collected.

This one 8 metres high on the end of a branch called for serious measures. Had to do a bit of out of season pollarding and had to take another branch out to get at the one it was on to cut that, tress looking a bit lop sided now.

Chris

 

[yeogi75]

this ones mine and got it back

 

[Fatbee]

Almost, as I was doing an A/S on one colony another promptly swarmed from a neighbouring hive in to a hawthorn hedge about 8ft up. I was so busy concentrating on the A/S that I didn't notice that it had got very noisy behind me! Went to the colony that was going and it was practically bouncing with all the activity! Managed to cut the branch and big clump came down in a brood box (pretty sure queen was in it) and the tails were in the air at the entrance.

However, loads of bees were clustering back on the original hive brood box. Does anybody know if those that load up on honey but then for a reason like this (due to proximity) return to original hive; do they go back to storing the honey or are they more likely to a be problem and encourage a cast in due course (light and temp prevented me from seeing just how many QCs were in original hive - a job for next day or so when hopefully all calmed down a bit).

Our pesky climate does make things tricky - 10 days of poor weather and no inspections and the first good day and wham they're on their way!

 

[galileo]

Yep, 1 gone and another 5 AS this last weekend. I've been away and didn't get the chance to visit that particular out apiary for 16 days. Still loads of bees in the brood and 2 supers, but 18 QCs, 14 capped and 1 emerged, so I pulled all the virgins and let them loose in the hive to sort it out. It's an inherited colony from a swarmy queen so they're going to be requeened with something a bit more settled.

 

[maddydog]

My first ever Demaree failed (more likely I failed hehe). Got a panicky call from the landowner who couldn't get to her raspberries! Shook them into a spare box and on the 3rd attempt finally got the queen and they all trooped in. Even managed to get SWMBO interested and involved

Went through the original hive and left them a single fat grub.

What an interesting hobby