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reintroducing a swarm

3K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  Jim Fischer 
#1 ·
I see some posts about swarms this late in the year and remember the old addage, a swarm in July ain't worth a fly. So, if a swarm does occur, what's the best way to reintroduce it to the same or another hive?
 
#2 ·
I would let the swarm draw some comb for me, then newspaper it together with another colony. Then again, I'm not convinced on the "Swarm in X, isn't worth a Y". I have a project colony someone gave me in the back yard that is effectively a late july swarm, and I'm watching them to see what they do. They'll probably get combined back into my main hive when I bring it back from the mountains, or go to live in my observation hive.
 
#4 ·
I had a swarm (first I've ever seen) today with a new-this-spring colony of Buckfasts. I watched in amazement as the swarm transpired, and then I helplessly watched the swarm fly toward the woods, making the most marvelous buzz imaginable. I rushed to put together a hive box to attempt to capture the swarm, and at some point I realized that I had bought clipped queens this year. Sure enough, I looked in front of the hive and there was the queen down on the grass. I rushed to put my hive of new Permacomb inside the electric fence as close as I could get to the queen, and I put a few drops of lemon balm inside the hive. Then I went and picked up the queen with a plantain leaf and placed her in the hive. She marched right in. Within a few minutes, the swarm began to return, first checking back in the original hive, and then finding the new hive. Before long the hive was covered with bees, and while I was taking pictures of the action, the swarm started up again. This time the swarm started to form in a tree above the hives. After things settled down again, I looked in front of the hive again, and the queen (marked in green) was there, so I picked her up on a leaf and put her back in the hive. Again, she marched right in. I left for a minute while I closed the electric fence back up, and on a whim I went to check back in front of the hive. To my amazement, there was the queen again... back in the same place with other bees around her. Only this queen had faded WHITE paint on her back. Anyway, I said, "What the heck," and placed her in the hive too... and in she marched.

Don't these bees know the rules of how to be bees? 1.) No swarming in August... especially in their first year 2.)Only one queen per colony 3.) Only accept Permacomb sprayed with syrup or coated with wax. Sheesh! What is this world coming to?

They have settled into the new hive, so I will be needing to do some bee recombining, too, I suspect.

Twas a fun day!

GreenMountainRose

[ August 07, 2006, 03:29 PM: Message edited by: GreenMountainRose ]
 
#5 ·
The other part of the addage is something like a swarm in May is worth, I don't know, a load of hay, in June a silver spoon.

So what about next spring when I fail to prevent swarming? Is the newspaper combining method the general way after killing the queen?

I know MB you don't like to kill the queen and neither do I, but I don't think I can keep multiplying hives and I want lots of bees in the hive for making honey. Am I missing something about the nucs or are they producing honey for some of you, not just a source of extra brood, a queen, etc. when needed?
 
#6 ·
> Am I missing something about the nucs or are
> they producing honey for some of you, not just
> a source of extra brood, a queen, etc. when
> needed?

Where you are, just about any swarm could be
fed and pampered through your mild winters to
provide a "spare queen" or "extra brood" when
required, but swarms do one thing really well -
they draw comb like nothing you've seen.

Given that swarms will often be headed up by
a perfectly useful marked queen of known
pedigree, one is often wise to remove the
new queen that is left in the hive from which
the swarm issued, and replace it with the
marked queen that left with the swarm when
recombining. The odds of a hobby beekeeper
having enough drones in his/her area to
properly mate a new queen are low enough that
swapping the two queens would be a good idea
if you want to keep the swarm for a while.

> Is the newspaper combining method the general
> way after killing the queen?

Sure - it works well, and the sooner it is
done, the easier it is to do the recombine.
 
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