Baseball to softball sized. Some of my hives were doing fairly heavy orientation flights around 5:00pm. I came out to see a small swarm in the air above my hives. I could not tell if the swarm came from mine, but if it did, I have a suspect. I started "tanging" and the bees gathered about 7-8 feet up on my fig bush. I got a number of them to crawl on nasty old brood comb that had some nectar in it and shook the majority into the deep nuc box. I left them on the top of the ladder over night and it sounds like they are still there this morning. If they stay, I'll move them down tomorrow, and weather permitting, will have a look and add the 2 frames needed to make 5.
If I find a queen and the bees seem to be settling in, I have plenty of brood in hives and can give them a boost. Something to play with--maybe.
August 16, 2012 Swarm
Re: August 16, 2012 Swarm
The little swarm seems to be settling in--not a large number of workers, but a fat, unmarked queen. All but one of my queens are marked. I saw my unmarked one a few days ago, and this isn't her. If weather permits tomorrow afternoon, I will see if the queen is laying. If so, I plan on putting a nice frame of capped brood in the nuc to boost this group. I now have 2 bee presentations scheduled for October, and if I can keep these bees going, they will make a good and easy group of bees/queen to put in my observation hive.
Re: August 16, 2012 Swarm
I wound up having 4 presentations in the last month and have used this swarm each time. I marked the queen silver since I did not know her age. I gave the swarm a frame of brood once I determined there was a functioning queen, but she never really has picked up the pace. I don't see moving resources to boost this nuc, and I don't think there are enough young bees to warrant combining it with a stronger hive.
It was good to have this small swarm available since two of the mornings were in the low to mid 40's when I packed the bees into my observation hive. I would not have wanted to disrupt the hives I am trying to have brood-up for overwintering.
It was good to have this small swarm available since two of the mornings were in the low to mid 40's when I packed the bees into my observation hive. I would not have wanted to disrupt the hives I am trying to have brood-up for overwintering.
Re: August 16, 2012 Swarm
I am thankful to have had this swarm to use, but they are gone. About a week ago, the queen and a small number of bees were still in the nuc. I checked today with the idea that if they were hanging on, I might put them over another hive with a double screen. I knew there were not enough bees to make it over winter without another heat source. All of the bees were gone and there were just empty frames this afternoon. The queen never did pick up laying but I have to give her credit for putting on several good shows.
Re: August 16, 2012 Swarm
R.I.P.