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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Tricia Weiner <tbeckerjewelry AT gmail.com>, ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Potential swarming colony?
  • Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2016 19:42:50 -0400

Hey Tricia,

To answer a few of your questions:

First, is sounds like your colony has already swarmed, past tense. There isn't anything you can do to put the genie back in the bottle short of catching the swarm (don't literally put the swarm directly back in the same hive or they'll just swarm again later) . They decided to swarm a week and a half or more ago, before they even began constructing queen cells; once they decide that swarming is their agenda, it is difficult (nearly impossible?) to change their mind. If you catch them beforehand, you can perhaps salvage much of the swarm by making a split with the old mother queen and moving it to a new site (see the article <here> for more on that).

We must remember that from a bee's perspective, swarming is the reason bees are on this earth. It is the colony's way of reproducing. They don't just wake up one day and say, "Hey, let's swarm today, if nobody's doing nuthin' else interesting." They plan for it weeks in advance and devote an extreme amount of time and resources into making it happen. If we thwart their attempts, they typically will keep trying until they are successful.

When the bee books say "add space" they really aren't telling you enough information. "Space" isn't the issue. The issue (actually just one component of the entire complex puzzle) is laying space within the brood nest. Adding supers above the brood nest does nothing at all to relieve congestion in the brood nest, and neither does adding foundation. Neither of those provide empty cells for the queen to lay in. If we are going to head off congestion in the brood nest, we must be very proactive, staying ahead of the bees, and provide empty drawn comb in the nest. Being reactive is being too late to do anything effective.

Also know that doing all of the right things doesn't guarantee that your colonies won't swarm. My bees often swarm even when they seem to have plenty of space for the queen to lay. They are going to do what they want to do, and they really really really really want to swarm.

In addition, you should know that your bees aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing right now. This is not swarm season -- that ended when the honey flow ended. Your bees, sorry to say, are dumb. The swarm won't likely survive in the wild because it won't be able to find food to carry it through the summer dearth. On the plus side, they have greatly reduced the number of mouths to feed in the mother hive. The colony doesn't need all those foragers right now anyway -- there is nothing of consequence to forage on. So if the left-behind colony has a full complement of drawn comb and plenty of stored honey, they'll be in great shape for fall/winter. No tears for the swarm.

If you go into the hive at this point and cut out queen cells, you'll be destroying your colony's chance for requeening itself. My advice is to leave the colony alone (except for feeding, if needed) for 3 to 4 weeks and then check for evidence of a new queen. If you don't see any evidence, wait another 1 to 2 weeks then check again. See the article <here> for more on swarm math. Attempting to introduce a $30 queen while the colony is in the process of making their own queen is a waste of $30 as well as regicide.

Six mediums is way too much space for a hive this time of year. What is in the supers? If they are full of honey/sugar-water "honey" then stop feeding -- you've accomplished your mission as described <here>. With that much space you are likely going to have problems with small hive beetles and wax moths as the bee population naturally declines going into winter, and this risk of beetle/moth issues has already been significantly increased by the loss of the swarm population. The article <here> talks about recommended space for the year-round brood chamber (which is what you should be working with this time of year) and how to achieve that with different equipment configurations.

Does this help?

Randall

On 7/24/2016 11:23 AM, Tricia Weiner wrote:
Hi everyone!   I have been happily watching my first and only colony grow this year, using all medium boxes starting from a box in April .   Today I watched them start to emerge and turn into a massive amount of bees flying around my yard (first time this many and at this expanse) , at their front entrance, create a small ball at in the weeds at the front entrance and make more noise than I have ever heard.   This was all by 830am.  This to me sounded and looked like the start of a swarm.

I added the 6th medium box with 10 empty frames today, and fed again.  I sprayed all the bees at the entrance with sugar water syrup.  I did not go into the hive at the hopes of not disturbing them any more.  They calmed down, decreased the activity to normal level within 20 minutes.

I think I have to go in and look for signs of queen cells in the brood nest.    Would any one have time today or tomorrow morning to help me?   I live near Lowes at 15/501 where Sage and Erwin meet in Chapel Hill.    If possible, can I split this hive if there is signs of a swarm?  How do I best save the colony and encourage them to stay?  I will have to get more boxes and frames to create another hive if that is a possibility.

Thanks for any help anyone could offer!  Have a great day.
Tricia Weiner
cell: 201-736-5604

btw- in regards to my previous HOA issue- it has peacefully resolved!

--
Happily,
Tricia 

Happiness Is The Key!



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