Swarm-Abscond Calls-8/22

[Jacobs]

As the contact person for Guilford County Beekeepers Association, I have been getting more "swarm" calls in the last week than I have ever gotten before at this time of year. I'm not sure if we are dealing with SHB absconds, starving bees or something else. I have directed callers to our swarm list. I would like to know what folks are seeing as they collect these 'swarms." Are they queen right? Will they stay in a hive or try and abscond again?

[Jacobs]

I had bees show up at the house about 11:30 am today. I'd estimate about enough bees to cover a little over 1 medium frame. The unmarked queen is in a catcher clip in a nuc. Even with the queen in the nuc and a feeder jar on top, a lot of the bees are not entering the nuc.

[Jacobs]

I've just had another small arrival at the house. I have put out a nuc and hope they will go in. I need to go ahead and put some bait hives out because small groups of bees are arriving fairly regularly. I think they are attracted to old comb from deadouts I have to clean up.

[Jacobs]

The latest arrivals at the Jacobs Home for Wayward Bees came in at around 9:45 am this morning. I gave them 5 medium frames in a deep nuc I was using as a bait hive. A small spray of Swarm Commander convinced them to go there as they arrived. My last 2 arrivals before this one have unmarked, laying queens, and are each in a 1 box medium nuc. I am giving them a pint of 1:1 regularly to encourage the queens to continue to lay. I have a bee event in a couple of weeks, so I may mark these queens and then use the best looking nuc to put in my observation hive.

[Jacobs]

The August 20, 2022 arrival has a queen, but she has not started laying yet. I am keeping a pint of 1:1 on them as well as on the 2 earlier arrivals.

[frank]

I caught two mini absconds/swarm too. I am close to the PTI. Both landed on a fence post that I sprayed with swarm commander about a month ago. Saw relatively small queens. Fortunately I have some extra bees that I can use to combine with them.

[Jacobs]

My newest arrival came on the afternoon of September 27th. I'm not sure if it is one that arrived earlier and absconded again or if this is a new colony. There are less than 2 medium frames of bees, but as of yesterday, there were eggs and larvae. I am feeding them and will play with them like I have with 4 other late arrivals.