A swarm in May

[British Red]

BB looked out the front door today and called me with

I think you had better come and look at this

One of our hives was swarming! This was odd because this hive was one we had practiced swarm control on.....and it had no queen! Now bees won't swarm without a queen. In this hive was only one sealed queen cell we thought and so a new virgin queen was due to be born, then mate, then form a new colony. No reason for it to swarm. Our mentor had checked it and said

"thats fine, leave it for a couple of weeks now - it'll be fine"

What had happened of course was more than one queen cell.....so the hive had split and swarmed

I thought it would be interesting for people to see what happens

What we saw first was a few bees buzzing in a cloud - you can see a cluster at the top of the wall


Odd bee behaviour by British Red, on Flickr

Then quickly the sky was full of bees


Swarm in air by British Red, on Flickr

They gathered by a scrap pile facing an elder tree


Alighting swarm by British Red, on Flickr

They started to clump on a branch


Swarm cluster forming by British Red, on Flickr

Quickly forming a huge mass of bees


Formed swarm cluster by British Red, on Flickr

We grabbed bee suits, a box, board and secateurs. The branch was cut and the bees shaken into the box. The box was carefully inverted on the board


Swarm in box (on board) by British Red, on Flickr

The board was propped up to allow all the bees to crawl in. Provided you have captured the queen, they will all go in


Swarm capture box propped open by British Red, on Flickr

An empty "super was placed on a floor and stand, the box was shaken and the swarm dropped in with a "thump". A brood box full of foundation was placed on top and a crown board and roof added.

The board the box had been rested on was leaned on the landing board


Prop up board on landing board by British Red, on Flickr

All the remaining bees kindly then formed neat lines and marched into the hive


Bee Swarm marching into hive by British Red, on Flickr

We may well re-unite this swarm with the hive it came from...but we will decide that when we see if the remaining queen cell hatches!

Hope that was interesting...
Red

 

[Toddy]

Yep, it was indeed

Thank you for sharing, and good luck with the hives too

cheers,
Toddy

 

[resnikov]

That was really interesting. I would like to keep bees one day so anything I can learn about them is great.

 

[Turnstone]

I once saw swarming bees out "in the wild". That was an amazing experience, so many bees in one place, and no one seemed to care about me standing quite close to it! I don't know if they escaped from a beekeeper or if they were wild ones.

It's fascinating to see how they just follow the queen into the box!

 

[British Red]

Swarms are very passive Turnstone - the bees gorge before flying and are semi torpid - a bit like me after Sunday lunch . We literally dumped tens of thousands of bees into a box - they didn't attack or anything. I even swept some up with a dustpan and brush! In their swarm state they are very passive indeed

 

[Niels]

That sure was interesting, thanks for sharing.

 

[Davidn]

That's great!
Bees are so interesting, my dad got his first colony about a month ago and I'm hooked.

 

[Ichneumon]

Swarm in May - worth a ton of hay. (allegedly) Though usually from a thriving colony with an established queen. Best time for a swarm though. Good luck with them.

 

[Steve27752]

Fascinating, you learn something new every day.

 

[John Fenna]

When a swarm settled in the hedge next door to us the beekeeper who collected them did not even bother suiting up - just in shirt and trousers he shook them into a box, put the box in his van and drove home!
They must be torpid!

 

[Elen Sentier]

Wow! That's gorgeous. They are such fascinating creatures. Like to know how the new swarm/hive gets on and if the other queen-cell hatches. We've not seen a swarm here for a few years , but there are honeybees out.

I love the pic in the tree - what my bee-n-gardening uncle use to call "a bag o' bees". Way back in the 1950s, he used to pick up a clump like that from the branch and carry it in his bare hands to a hive, seen him walk down the village street with one and all us kids hopping after him fascinated . We were on notice to tell him if we saw a swarm ... got sixpence for that! One time all the traffic was stopped while he got a ladder and climbed into the holly bush hanging over the road to take one ... mind you, all the traffic in those days was 2 cows, one dog, 3 kids (inlc me on my pony, who'd found it) and the postman in his van who got out to hold the ladder!

 

[British Red]

That sounds like life as it should be Elen

Our bee books tell us our swarm prevention techniques should have avoided a swarm. All we have to do now is to get the bees to read the books

Swarming is something I dreaded to be honest - but having dealt with one, I would be happy to collect swarms like your Uncle!

 

[Elen Sentier]

That sounds like life as it should be Elen

Our bee books tell us our swarm prevention techniques should have avoided a swarm. All we have to do now is to get the bees to read the books

Swarming is something I dreaded to be honest - but having dealt with one, I would be happy to collect swarms like your Uncle!

Yay! getting the critters to read the books and conform to how we think they should be/work is a problem . My super plantsman-teacher at Pershore used to say it of the plants too - he was sooo good! Bees naturally swarm, it's what the need to do every now and then, we really shouldn't be trying to stop them, IMO

Uncle Perce used to say holding the bees was all about really getting the feel of them, being with them (!!! pun !!!) and not feeling scared. He used to talk to them all the time and so does another friend who keeps bees over your way. I got the hang of it as a child and could let them crawl all over me but I've lost a lot of it with bees in the intervening 50 years. Hair's the worst thing, needs covering as they can get stuck in it and then get scared. Perce was half-bald so fine, I had hair down below my waist ... not fine! Hope to get the senses back if/when Hubby ever gets a hive ... :tapedshut

It was a good time back in the 50s, Red, makes me glad I live in the back of beyond now.

 

[John Fenna]

You should ALWAYS talk to the bees - if you do not tell them all the latest news, especially local and family news, births, deaths, marriages etc they will leave you!

 

[British Red]

It was a good time back in the 50s, Red, makes me glad I live in the back of beyond now.

Very true (both parts). I feel so sorry for modern kids - mainly because of their cotton wool cosseting parents!

My brother and I used to spend all day sailing in tidal estuaries and round the coast when I was...what..12? No adults there. We got into a few scrapes but learned from them. Half the kids today wouldn't be allowed to walk in the country alone all day at that age

My folks subscribed to the Arthur Ransome school

Better drowned than duffers. If not duffers, won't drown

 

[BATMAN]

Brilliant read.

 

[HillBill]

Nice read that Red, Great pics too

 

[SiWhite]

My folks subscribed to the Arthur Ransome school

Now THAT is a quote worth remembering - good one!

 

[Stew]

I learnt something new about swarming hives from my Dad (who has a number of hives) the other week that seems so obvious now.

Everyone has a general idea that a swarm is when a hive is a certain size it splits off with queen at the old hive and a queen going with the new group, yeah?

Well what happens is that the old queen goes with the swarm, not the new queen. This is what surprised me but the reason why is because there can't be two queens in a hive else they will attack each other until one is dead. The old queen leaves before the new queen is born. I believe there agree a number of queen cross layed to give more of a chance of the old hive having a queen but if there's a problem with all of them, the hive is done for.

Kind of odd but also makes good sense.

 

[rowen]

Thanks for sharing, really interesting