I know the weather was unusually warm in January. What does eveyone think about it (the weather) leading to early swarming?
I heard that the bees swarmed in February one time. It's already March and the weather has been nippy.
Do you think the bees are building up quickly and might swarm soon?
I dont know about the weather, but the stuff I have been reading by George Imirie suggests you can deter swarming by rotating the brood boxes. He suggests that the main factor that triggers swarming is brood area congestion. That and an old queen.
Bees really like to keep us in our lowly human place, don't they? Here's a long story about our first swarm (today, 3/23), followed by some questions.
I heard the noise first, then saw this huge living wad hanging in the filbert tree near the other two hives. Of course, I immediately grabbed my camera and then called the spousal unit who cancelled a couple of clients and rushed home.
Swarming was a chapter I hadn't read yet, so I just followed instructions and soon realized the spouse hadn't read the chapter yet, either! Our best guess was to get frames into a spare hive, take it down to the swarm and up onto a ladder we placed beneath it. We sort of snapped the branch and a huge wad of the bees went into the hive. A huge wad of them poured down on my hat, too - it felt like yesterday's hail! AND, who would think that bees could sting through two layers of spandex garden gloves? No more red spandex - new commandment for me! Anyway, we moved the hive down to the ground on some cinder blocks and carefully covered it.
We only felt smug for a few moments, though, because the bees were still swarming up to the filbert. Since the swarm was getting big again, we made another attempt, this time climbing the ladders to cut the limb and tote the mass down to the new hive where we snap/dropped the bees in and covered them up. I did have on the regulation rubber-based gloves by then, but, interestingly enough, there were no angry attacks this time.
Then, thinking it was all over the spouse readied to go back to work, but a whole herd of the bees were back in yet another branch (since the original one was on the ground near the opening to the hive). So, we did it ONE MORE time, and it seems to have worked. No more bees in what is left of the filbert. So we put some sugar water on the hive and now it's relatively calm down there.
So.....what did we do wrong? What did we do right? Should we have smoked the swarm before trying to move it? And is there any truth to the rumor that lots of bee stings on your hands will help the arthritis in your hands???
Hi Beth:
Sounds like you did most everything right.
My guess is that the bees had been in the swarm cluster for a while. What time did you see them?
Anyway, perhaps the scouts had already found another locaion and you caught them just as they were getting ready to take off. I have heard that if you give them a frame of brood you can entice them to stay the first time.
Bees are a funny creature just as you have indicated.
Bruce also mentioned that reversing your boxes to give them more room can be helpful. Did you try that? Did you feed any?
Either way it sounds like you have gained another hive, so congratulations.
Thanks, JC. As y'all could tell, we did everything mostly by trial and error.
As for your question - I noticed the swarm around 11am, and we don't think it had been there when we were out earlier (7:30) but who knows. By the time spouse got home, there were bees flying all over - in the carport, around the deck, as well as in the big mass. Perhaps you're right that they were ready to split to some new spot - hadn't thought of that or read anything about it. More than likely, their reluctance to stay put in the new hive the first two times had a lot to do with our inexperience and lack of knowledge and poor technique! Where are the videocams when you need them? Anyway, today it seem as if they have settled in.
Yes, we had heard something about reversing, but didn't really understand what it was and/or exactly why and when you did it. NOW we do!!
So, now I'm trying to learn if our other hive might also swarm, if it's too late to reverse and what 'queen brood' looks like. We're ready to take a look over the weekend. And, no more red gloves for me!
Beth:
Usually the easiest way to tell if a hive is about to swarm is if you see the swarm cells on the bottom of the frames. Usually about 9 out of 10 swarm cells will be built on the bottom of the frame. So without actually pulling each frame individually, you can simply lean the brood chamber or super back and look for yourself. It may require a little smoke to get the bees to move up and in, but you will undoubtedly see them if they are there. Even if you see swarm cells you can split and still not cause a swarm if you know what you are doing.
