Swarm!

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Swarm!

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Bog Spavin

Joined: 25 May 2006
Posts: 362
Location: North Yorkshire

Posted: Sun May 20, 07 7:52 pm Post subject: Swarm!

I know there are a few bee keepers on here and you get nothing but my highest admiration. I go typically hysterical and pathetic when buzzy, stingy things are around me but today I got to see a bee keeper at work.
I was looking at the gooseberries this morning when I heard buzzing I looked up and there were a cloud of bees over next doors garden. I made my escape but they settled on our fence.

We called a local phone number and someone phoned us back within minutes and came straight over during this time a seperate swarm had settled in a neighbouring paddock. Here is the very nice man collecting the bees from our garden (

the may clean up challenge is not going well.

)

Our neighbour said he hadn't seen a swarm in these parts for 20 years and was amazed to see two in one day.

Mr O

Joined: 13 Feb 2005
Posts: 5512
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada

Posted: Sun May 20, 07 10:20 pm Post subject:
We had a swarm go over us today too. I have no Idea where they ended up though. The noise as they went overhead was spooky and they were moving fast.

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Sun May 20, 07 10:22 pm Post subject:
So - if you see a swarm people would like to know? (See one or two every year.)

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon

Posted: Mon May 21, 07 6:33 am Post subject:

ruby wrote:

So - if you see a swarm people would like to know? (See one or two every year.)

Yes. A beekeeper will come and give them a home. You should be able to contact someone from here .
People in England would find a number here

Sarah D

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 2584

Posted: Mon May 21, 07 6:46 am Post subject:
Nice picture of the swarm on the fence post; I thought mine were going to swarm yesterday, but nothing happened after all, just a bit livelier than usual

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Mon May 21, 07 7:31 am Post subject:

ruby wrote:

So - if you see a swarm people would like to know? (See one or two every year.)

The other thing is that wild colonies are usually full of varroa which is not good for local beekeepers so if you do see one please let someone know and they will give it a nice new home and try to make sure it stays disease free

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Mon May 21, 07 11:17 am Post subject:

Chez has 4 hives and they all swarmed in the last two weeks! I now have two of said swarms, one in return for the promise of a weaner in the autumn, and the other a birthday present. Nice natured bees, the first settling down nicely and the second to be hived later today. The syrup is on the stove as I type...

There was an excellent talk from the Welsh Bee Keepers' Association at Builth on Saturday which was very reassuring for a novice bee-keeper.

Bog Spavin

Joined: 25 May 2006
Posts: 362
Location: North Yorkshire

Posted: Mon May 21, 07 11:21 am Post subject:
The O/H wanted bees when we moved in here but I am completely irrational.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Mon May 21, 07 11:25 am Post subject:

mochyn wrote:

Chez has 4 hives and they all swarmed in the last two weeks!

I think partly because of the weather - it's been very mild - and partly because we had an extra crown board on the top of each of the brood chambers, so they didn't have quite enough room to get up in to the next super. I fixed that yesterday, so we'll have to see what happens.

I understand from one of the Bee Gurus I was chatting to at the last Association meeting that in any given year, 6 out of 10 hives will swarm if you don't stop them (either by knocking queen cells off before they develop or by 'articifically' swarming them and then reuniting the hives). Instead of our original 4 hives we now have 6 ... and no more spare stuff

.

We probably won't get quite as much honey this year as we would have if they hadn't decided to swarm - but on the other hand, next year we'll have *loads* .... yay!

Glad they are settling in, Mochyn!

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Mon May 21, 07 12:17 pm Post subject:
I might keep them then...

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