Your bees swarm: embarrassing? or a case of que sera sera?

[Gilberdyke John]

I made a wrong judgement call a couple of days ago when my strongest hive had one well drawn charged queen cell. As there was only one I judged it possible supercedure. Today I saw them swarm but fortunately I have recovered the swarm into a spare hive I had prepared earlier in case of such an eventuality

 

[Nakedapiarist]

Mine swarmed into the neighbours garden three weeks after I had them - they didn't mind but it was a bit embarrassing. Worse has been convincing the street that the other swarms that have turned up aren't my bees at all - particularly since they all seem to be attracted to the same bleedin' spot. Down the allotment yesterday evening someone even gave me a heads up that they'd just seen a dark cloud of bees heading in my direction - thankfully they didn't stop.

I'm going to start clipping so at least my queens won't make it over the fence - it should minimise any inconvenience to next door.

 

[Fraise]

Our next door neighbour went to a talk on bees and beekeeping at a U3A meeting.
They were told that only bad beekeepers allow their bees to swarm and that the speaker had never had a swarm.

Unfortunately I have twice had to go into her garden to retrieve my bees from their favorite staging tree. Needless to say she reminds me of what she was told at U3A .

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Our next door neighbour went to a talk on bees and beekeeping at a U3A meeting.
They were told that only bad beekeepers allow their bees to swarm and that the speaker had never had a swarm.

Unfortunately I have twice had to go into her garden to retrieve my bees from their favorite staging tree. Needless to say she reminds me of what she was told at U3A .

You need to volunteer to give a talk to the group and put across a realistic version. Give out a couple of jars of honey as raffle prizes and encourage anyone interested to join the local bka and become beekeepers

 

[masterBK]

Most beekeepers get caught out sooner or later and lose the occasional prime swarm but there are few excuses for losing secondary swarms. In the swarming season poor weather is no excuse for not carrying out regular checks. You can check a colony in about 2 minutes if you are well organised. If worried about the rain /sleet get someone to hold a big umbrella over the colony why you do it (obviously the umbrella can't cope in very windy weather).

 

[Swarm]

You can check a colony in about 2 minutes if you are well organised.

That long????!!!???

 

[Glenviewbee]

Most beekeepers get caught out sooner or later and lose the occasional prime swarm but there are few excuses for losing secondary swarms. In the swarming season poor weather is no excuse for not carrying out regular checks. You can check a colony in about 2 minutes if you are well organised. If worried about the rain /sleet get someone to hold a big umbrella over the colony why you do it (obviously the umbrella can't cope in very windy weather).

That long????!!!???

Unfortunately where my apiary is plus my geographical location often means that rain and windy conditions go hand in hand so no amount of big umbrellas can help with hive checking when the weather turns sour.

I dream of being able to go through a colony, carefully checking all nooks and crannies for queen cells, in cr*ppy weather when ALL the bees are also in the hive and not impressed with being opened up in said cr*ppy weather...