Swarm

[Robert_Brenchley]

I got down to the plot today to find a swarm of bes hanging in the hedge. I'm not sure where they came from; they look like my bees, and at first I thought they were from my strong hive, which keeps making swarm cells. But it was as active and full of bees as ever, looking quite unlike a hive which has just swarmed, and in any case a hive that strong should throw a much bigger swarm than that one. So they could be strays, or they could even be the swarm I lost a few weeks ago, still wandering about. Stranger things have happened.

I got one of my swarm boxes from the shed; that's a light wooden box with an entrance hole at one end and lots of mesh ventilation. I held the box under the bees, and a few hard knocks on the little branches they were hanging from had them in. The air was full of bees, as always in these cases, but in a couple of minutes the bees were scenting away, and they were going in. When the queen is in the box, some of the bees round the entrance will raise their bums in the air and fan scent from their Nasonov glands, to attract the others. If the queen isn't there, they all troop out looking for her. So I left them a while, while I put an empty box on top of the weaker hive, separated from the bees inside by a sheet of newspaper with a few little holes in it. I shook the bees in, put the roof on, and by the time the swarm has chewed a hole big enough to get through, the scents will have mingled, and they'll uinite without fighting. Trouble was, I made a mess of it, and about a quarter of the bees ended up outside, clustered round the top box.

I didn't worry about that, as they'll normally find their way in gradually. But the queen must have been with them, as after about half an hour they suddenly swarmed up and landed back in the hedge. So the swarm box came out again, and this time I left them in the shade by the hives. I'll let the first lot unite overnight, and then add the second the same way. That should leave that hive strong enough to give plenty of honey, despite losing that swarm.

[Robert_Brenchley]

[sandersj89]

Great picture Robert, we had a swarm a couple of years ago:

You can see them here:

http://community.webshots.com/album/142779238MxoFcI

They only stayed for 24 hours, I rang the local bee keeping group but they arrived too late to capture them and they moved on:

(click for a larger view)



They left this as a leaving present:




Great creatures!

Jerry

[Mrs Ava]

Amazing!  Gotta say, I would be mighty frightened if I arrived at the allotment and that greeted me!  Bees don't bother me when they are buzzing around doing there thing, but enmasse I find worrying.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Swarms don't sting unless you handle individual bees roughly, or they're starving. They obviously don't have any food stores, and if it's too cold or wet for them to forage they soon get hungry. In weather like this they're no threat to anyone.

[markyb23]

Great story-and photo.Thanks for sharing it with us Robert :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Things went badly wrong overnight. I checked earlier, and found the bees that were in the swarm box back in the hedge. When I looked at the ones in the hive, I found a pile of sticky dead bees, which had obviously overheated. Nothing worse than several thousand dead bees! The newspaper method's always worked fine for me before, but obviously this weather was a bit too much for them with limited ventilation. In future, I'm putting a screen mesh over the top instead of a normal roof in this sort of weather. So I tipped them out, gathered the remaining bees from the hedge, and tried to put them back in the hive, this time with mesh screen to separate them from the bees inside. I can slide this out later. Half of them flew up once more, and in no time they were back in the hedge. This time I've tacked a piece of card over the entrance, and they can stay there until I've got the ones still in the hive sorted. Then I'll put them in after dark, it seems to be the only way of getting them in. They won't leave frames of brood, and once they've spent the night in the hive, ther won't be any further problems.

[Paulines7]

Rather you than me handling these bees Robert!   :o

We had swarms in the garden a couple of years back but by the time I got hold of someone to deal with them they had moved on.

[OliveOil]

Oh gosh robert - what a palarver!!! hope you get all the bees and get them settled soon!

Hows the job hunt going?

[supersprout]

This is so impressive robert, can't help feeling you're very brave (and persistent) in spite of reassurances. Glad YOU know what you're doing with a hedgeful of bees! :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Nothing brave about it; swarms don't sting unless they're starving! They can be really cantankerous when they want to be, but I'm upset about losing those bees overnight. I've been thinking about it all morning, as a hive does have ventilation in the roof, and they're incredibly good at temperature regulation. I think it was all due to the queen getting out of the hive. In her absence, they would have been trying to escape, which explains the unusual numbers I saw inside the mesh on the vents. I think they just clogged them right up, leaving them without access to cool air from outside. Without ventilation, a colony will overheat and die in a few minutes.

[Robert_Brenchley]

In the end, I piled several empty boxes on top of the hive, and put the swarm box inside. I left them a while for the smells to mingle, then opened the entrance hole and let the swarm bees out. Judging by the  mob of bees doing orientation flights round that hive later, it seems to have worked.

[supersprout]

Phew! fingers crossed :)

[pakaba]

Hi
Thanks for sharing this Robert, i know nothing when it comes to bees, except that they are our friends, not foes.  i found it really interesting to read.  And now know not to panic if i ever come across a swarm.

:)
Paula

[Robert_Brenchley]

Don't! They really won't harm you unless the weather's too bad for them to forage, in which case they can get quite tetchy. If you call the police or the fire brigade, they should have contacts for local beekeepers, but there's a good chance the bees will move on before they can get anyone out.

That hive was all quiet this morning, so everything has settled down. I'm still feeling awful about all those dead bees though.

[steveuk]

Hi
with regard to cal the police or fire brigade they wont help i tried,
i keep the local bee keeper from yellow pages, i dont use local council, as all they do is destroy the bees :(
regards
steve

[Marymary]

A fascinating story Robert.  I have thought for years that I would like some bees but it's obviously a complicated business.  Perhaps i should find a course first.  How many hives have you got?  How much honey do you get? 

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've currently got three hives, and this year I got a total of 20 lb of honey, which is pathetic. Last year I got 60 lb, almost all off a single hive. Trouble is, it's been so dry that the plants haven't been producing nectar. on top of that, the hot weather early on encouraged swarming, and I've had serious problems raising queens, which I now think is probably due to mite infestation of the drones, which renders them unable to fly fast enough to catch the queens (there's been a proper study done recently which amply demonstrated this), and may also affect fertility. A lot of people have had problems, it's not just me. But there's always next year.

[calendula]

good luck, hope your perseverance has worked - sometimes worth marking the queen so you can easily see her and are you sure she is still actually there or maybe there is another queen emerging (rather late) but that would explain the persistent need to swarm and not be content to go back into the hive - you probably know all this, sorry  :-[ but for others who are interested, the stronger of the 2 queens will sort of fight it out (handbags at dawn style) and one will kill the other and the rest of the bees will then settle down

several years ago when one of my hives swarmed (it's a great thing to watch) - after much noise and flying they massed together and they rose several feet in the air and took off down stream so to speak and the funny thing was that when they got to the road they appeared to stop at the pavement, hesitated and then crossed the road, never to be seen again - we still laugh about that even now - beware, bees crossing  ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

Two of my queens are marked, the third isn't because I've dropped her twice, and they're runny and very elusive when they want to be. The old British bees are an exception to the rule about queens fighting; they tend to keep spare queens, probably as an adaptation for our weather; if one queen can't fly to mate properly, another probably will. I've had four in one broodbox before now, all living amicably together.

[triffid]

Hi guys,

Coincidentally, just walked in from a visit to our bees (getting them ready for autumn and winter now -- another sign that the summer's really over!)

Marymary, if you happen to look back here, YES! a beginners' course is definitely the way to go if you want to find out more . But beware, bees are addictive! Go to http://www.bbka.org.uk (the British Beekeepers' Association) and look up your local branch. Most do at least one course a year, usually in winter or early spring.

And Steveuk's experience of councils is (I hope ??? ) exceptional. Most just call out their local beekeepers, who have a list of swarm-takers. In general a swarm is only destroyed if its causing a nuisance and can't be removed from wherever its decided to set up home. Mercifully, that's not often the case. Steve, perhaps you could send your council the link above to the BBKA?