New Swarm on June 30 2014

nice. from where did the parent colony originate?

The parent colony was a new (2 month old) nuke that was put in a deep 10 frame box. They exploded so fast, I put another deep on, they filled it, so added a short super on it. I have kept a close eye on them, never seen bees that ate so much, and multiplied so quickly. Mind you, not complaining, I love it. Sure is a nice swarm. They were kind enough to settle on a small pine branch about 30 feet in the air. I have a 5 gal water container on a long boom pole. When they settle like that, just put the jug underneath them, and give it a big shove up under them. Most of time they will fall into the bucket, put the bucket over an open hive, slide them in.

Best,
casper_zip

understood cz. i am interested in the source of the nuke, where did it come from?

The nuke came from a fellow beek in my bee club. It was full of bees, and a new bred Italian queen. He bought about 8 queens from some one in SW Louisiana, don't remember where. I want to say Eunice, but I am not sure. He used the new queens and made splits from big strong hives he had. I have bought 2 from him, I think the rest are sold.

Hope this helps,

casper

yep. i was curious because there were some bees being bred in mississippi called 'sunkist' that were supposed to build up like crazy in that way. this would be an advantage to someone raising bees for sale. it might be a disadvantage if the bees were in an area like mine. the reason is that this late in the season my bees are taking a brood break to get through the summer dearth and a swarm would have a hard time getting established. strong build up is a good thing and something i want to see in the colonies that i select grafts from, but i also like to see the ability of the bees to adjust their population in anticipation of forage availability and dearth. what is the flow like down there at this time?

All my hives are going like gangbusters. To tell you the truth, I have no idea where they are getting their food supplies. We were supposed to have huge flow when the Chinese Tallow trees bloomed. I have hundreds of them, not a bee on any of them anywhere. Right now, bees are loaded with beautiful golden yellow pollen, and some bright orange. I have ridden 4 wheeler around, only bees reported are ones in peoples yards tending to flowers planted. I truly wish I could help. This is a lifetime worth of learning, if anyone can say they know something about bees. I thought I was pretty good, have learned tremendous stuff, but have a long way to go.
I figure you and I have about the same stuff raising bees.

Best,
casper