Surfnirvana Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Not sure we will have any bees left at this rate! We have two National hives - one of which was making queen cells, so knew that it was likely they were soon to swarm, but we couldn't do much about it due to timing and the weather conditions. Each swarm was collected by our local BBKA guy and taken away to be used elsewhere. I'm just pleased I was around to spot them all so they didin't die overnight in the cold (it's been 0 - 2 degrees where we are), or go off to relocate elsewhere. It is possible that one or more of the swarms have come from elsewhere, but unlikely. We will take a look at the hives later this week as the weather is due to get warmer and all will be revealed then! Our local apiary guys have said that the bees have'nt been "reading the books" and not doing what they are meant to for this time of year, probably due to the wet and cold weather! Strange times! Has anyone else experienced this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 This can happen - once they start swarming, the next queen to emerge also takes off and so on. It partly depends on the temperament of the bees, some are more swarmy than others. Are these all from the hive that had queen cells? Do you have a viable number of bees left in that hive? Rarely, it can go on until the colony is unable to continue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 making queen cells, so knew that it was likely they were soon to swarm, but we couldn't do much about it due to timing and the weather conditions As soon as you saw those QCs you should have artificially swarmed the colony. It's a good idea to have a brood box with made up frames spare at the beginning of the season....ready to go so to speak. Each of your hives may have swarmed or you may have lost a prime and a cast from one. Why did you let somebody else have your bees, especially as you saw them go? Hiving your own swarm and uniting when you have sussed out the best queen will still give you a crop. If you NEED to look in the hive then you should Don't be put off by "chilling the brood" You might only be chilling open brood. Capped brood and bees will be fine. Have in mind what you have to do, what you have to look at, be quick and don't look at anything else. This year has been strange insofar as we had a couple of really warm weeks in March encouraging colonies to build up only to be kicked back by bad weather for a month after. I had to AS a colony in the second week of April as a direct consequence of these two warm weeks only for them to face nearly six weeks of bad weather. Built up colonies....fed by caring beekeepers in the drought,have now exploded in the latest hot weather;hence the plethora of swarms. Even seasoned beekeepers have not been ahead of their bees and been caught out. Bees never read books but they are acutely adept at reading the weather. Best of luck and tell us how you get on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken Licken Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Re- hived a little cast last night. Not entirely sure where they came from as they seemed to be a much more yellow colour than my bees. Still - hopefully they will settle in and replace the useless DLQ in my dad's hive. Went through my busy hive and spotted the new queen (hopefully she is mated now as there were no eggs and brood), but also removed 5 queen cells - a couple hatched, some knocked down by the bees, so the cast could have come from there. We now have 1 hive with DLQ united with cast (through newspaper) I couldn't squish the queen as even though she was there 10 mins earlier whn I inspected, she had scarpered - must have known her days were seriously numbered. 1 poly nuc with a new queen just hatched from a split. 1 hive on brood and a half bursting with bees, but the new queen not laying yet. I'm not sure there will be any honey this year - but they are certainly keeping me busy!! I know they can't read, but it would be lovely if for just a couple of weeks they did what was expected!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Went through my busy hive and spotted the new queen (hopefully she is mated now as there were no eggs and brood), but also removed 5 queen cells - a couple hatched, some knocked down by the bees, In the same hive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken Licken Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Yes same hive. None of the QCs were occupied any more!!- 2 opened and others knocked down. I think the original queen was lost at the end of April. I don't think she swarmed, but she may have gone on the 1 warm day. On the 2nd May there were 2 queen cells beneath the frames (swarm cells) whcih I did a split from, leaving one in situ. The weather was then pants for 3 weeks. When I inspected next there was no sign of the QC, no eggs and a little sealed brood, and a new supercedure cell. Now no occupied QCs. I have taken down all the remnants and hopefully the newly hatched queen will mate and begin laying. Does that sound reasonable. The trouble was the weather was so pants that it was too long between inspections to keep track of what the bees were upto. The colony is large and busy, but good natured. Bringing in plenty of nectar and pollen so I'm hoping it will all come good. The nuc is a bit grumpy but bringing in pollen and nectar and being busy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hilda-and-evadne Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 Strange times! Has anyone else experienced this? I lost one swarm because, even though I saw it start and finish (I was supervising my hens' free-ranging at the time), and even though it went only as far as my neighbour's tree, it was too high up for even the swarm-collector to collect (nowhere suitable to rest ladder on). After three days, I had my window-cleaner lined up to help the swarm-collector with his own ladders and ready to saw off the branch but the swarm collector didn't answer the phone and didn't call me back. A few hours later the swarm disappeared. I had to destroy more than 38 swarm cells in that hive, found a couple of emergency cells which I left in place; then managed a nucleus swarm into a second hive (new queen emerged from her cell while I was doing this and I had only about three seconds in which to catch her and transfer her to the second hive) which itself swarmed three days later but only to a point a few feet from the hive. I collected it (it was very small) and put it back in the second hive, destroyed several emergency cells and, to prevent another swarm, put the queen-excluder under the brood box. I will have another look in a day or two, by which time the new queen in the second hive will be about two weeks hatched. Being such a new bee-keeper, I felt completely overwhelmed by the situation and at times felt like giving up. No idea when I will be able to mark the new queen in either hive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 That's really tough for a beginner. Some bees can have a really swarmy tendency, and to be honest you might be better off re-queening a colony like this (if you have enough bees left to make this viable!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 I agree. I have one colony now in three boxes,and I will be getting a buckfast before the summer's out...moving at present so there are other problems to circumvent. Two queens to find and mark today. These bees were sold to me as a beginner as "locals" I think they are Carnie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedusA Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 We've been religiously checking the hives every 7 days for the last couple of weeks or so. After the cold April/early May when we had to feed the bees to keep them alive, the warm weather has had the colonies expanding at an alarming rate. We've artificially swarmed my bees at home and one of the allotment colonies. The other allotment colony swarmed, despite our best efforts, as we'd obviously missed a hidden queen cell despite looking carefully. We managed to capture and hive them but they absconded 2 days later, ungrateful little blighters. Bees are swarming like crazy around this area. All our swarm collectors are run ragged. It doesn't help that people in general don't seem to know the difference between honey bees, bumble bees, solitary bees or wasps. A lot of the call outs are wasted journeys. We've currently got: 1 hive and 1 nuc at home 2 hives and 3 nucs at the allotment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Pretty much constant swarming round here, too. I was lucky enough to be offered a swarm last Friday that had been dropped into a cardboard box and left for collection, I picked it up that evening and put it in my second hive. This year my original colony came through the winter ok, but it has not been thriving; I was feeding until about a week ago but although the queen is present and laying, it's not expanding as well as I would expect and is only covering about five frames. I'm not expecting any honey this year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 This year my original colony came through the winter ok, but it has not been thriving; I was feeding until about a week ago but although the queen is present and laying, it's not expanding as well as I would expect and is only covering about five frames. I'm not expecting any honey this year Check it for nosema.....might be a good thing to do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
