First-year Buckfasts swarming in August

[GreenMountainRose]

Okay, I decided upon Buckfast packages this spring because of our harsh winters here in Vermont. The literature said that Buckfast have a "low-tendency to swarm." Yea, right. Out of 3 new hives from spring packages, I' have had AT LEAST 4 swarms since the beginning of the month, and I think those came out of only 2 hives.

I recaptured 2 swarms last night, and they did have their queens, in spite of the fact that my packages had clipped wings. (The hive that I believe this swarm came out of had overthrown the original queen about a week ago, as she was dead in front of the hive.)

After my swarm 3 weeks ago, I went in the hive and made sure they had plenty of stores, bees, and space left, and that all seemed fine. (I recombined that swarm with the weakest of the 3 newest colonies.)

Now, I have a million questions, but my biggest one is this: Will these bees keep this swarming behavior up next year to the extent that I will never be able to get a good honey crop from them, despite checkerboarding and ample space provisions?

I've also read some of you talking about mean successor generations of Buckfasts... are we talking a bit mean or downright nasty?

Really, what it boils down to is... how imperative is it that I requeen this fall or next spring?

[Dwight]

I live in Vermont also. the bees here in Vermont seemed to swarm excessively this year. I think due to the rainy spring we had. All but one of my hives swarmed this summer and as a result my summer harvest was very poor. The hives did seem to catch up and I am hoping for a good goldenrod flow.
I bought nucs from Kirk Webster this spring that are doing very well despite the swarming and the rainy weather.
Beekeeping is like all agriculture in that the weather dictates the outcome of the season. Sometimes we just have poor years. Hopefully next year will be better.
I would not worry about requeening as all of your hives have young queens at this point.

[wade]

From what I've read about Buskfasts, the second generation queen needs to be excised.

[ August 25, 2006, 10:40 AM: Message edited by: wade ]

[GreenMountainRose]

Dwight... thanks for letting me know that your bees swarmed this summer as well. That makes me feel much better things.

Wade... I've read about nasty buckfast second-generations as well. I would like to know if that is a "sometimes" or an "always" scenario.

Thanks for your replies.

[Todd Zeiner]

I would not be too quick to kill the second generation queen. Just keep an eye on them for aggresive tendancys. Not a hive for the back porch if you know what I mean.

I would deal with each situation as it is dealt. Not too quick to jump to a conclusion based on someone elses experience.

I would like another Buckfast to try. If anyone has a hot one they don't want, send her to me. I have a remote beeyard I can put them in. I suit up on every visit anyway.

[Michael Bush]

>The literature said that Buckfast have a "low-tendency to swarm." Yea, right.

All bees have a tendancy to swarm. That's like saying you have a breed of dog with a low tendancy to reproduce.

If you let them, sucessful bees will swarm. If you fool them they won't. smile.gif

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm

[Fusion_power]

Disagree with that Michael. The Buckfast as selected by Brother Adam and imported to the U.S. back in the early 1990's were decidedly non-swarmers. I had a dozen colonies at the time and bought new queens just as soon as the stock was available. The next spring, I had one colony that swarmed. The others just sat there and made honey.

Unfortunately, the Buckfast available from Texas today do not show this trait AT ALL.

Fusion

[Aspera]

Buckfasts, as originally described at the abby were low in there tendency to swarm, slow steady builders and capable of maintaining large autumn populations. My interpretation was that they were bred specifically for Ling heather and cold, damp springs. They probably had brood characteristics similar to caucasians.