So checked the swarm hives today and one set have buggered off. Must have not had a queen present or she was damaged when I transferred them into the hive. Still have 4 hives (plus the grumpy gits) so fingers crossed they all thrive now
Will they have gone far and is there a chance you’ll get them back again if someone posts a message in the local WhatsApp group about a peripatetic swarm of bees which has taken up residence in their porch?
Unlikely, scenarios are: Queen was never present when I collected them (pretty sure she was as they had all headed into the temp box in the evening) Or I damaged or dropped her when I shook them into the new hive. I had a queen excluder at the bottom of the hive so if she was in there she couldn’t have got out. The bees started swarming around that afternoon and flew off. They might have gone back to where I collected them but without a queen they will have to try and join another hive (if they accept them). It’s still swarm season for about another month so I might be able to collect another one.
Do you buy bees by the “swarm” or do you just get a queen and a few retainers as a sort of starter colony and hope you gain more recruits?
Sort of, it’s effectively a swarm on frames of wax. What you do is buy a ‘Nuc’ (Nucleus), this will be a box with 5-6 frames with a new, well mated, laying queen, frames of brood (a combination of eggs, lavae and capped pupae) and stores (food) and probably about 2,000 - 3,000 bees. The brood will hatch out and the queen will be laying about 500-1,000 eggs a day so the numbers will so increase. They are usually available in the next few months although you can buy more expensive over wintered Nucs in the Spring.
That is amazing. How often do they need looking after or attending to ? Do you just leave them to do their thing, or do they need a lot of attention ? I buy set honey from a honey producer. He has different flavors somehow based on time of year I think. The summer bloom one is nice 'cause it is quite sweet. Some of the other ones are quite strong tasting. There is not usually time to ask questions because the chap is usually busy with customers. Toast butter and set honey for breakfast every morning, during the week.
My son in law joined a local bee keeping group and was mentored whilst he got stated by an experienced member of the(who, when the time was right found him a swarm F.O.C. You can find s/h equipment advertised from time to time.
Not the same creature but this is something I definitely wouldn't be doing having been swarmed by Wasps many years ago. I've disturbed a Wasp nest in my garage yesterday luckily none were home.
At this time of year you need to be inspecting them every 7 days really. You need to make sure they have enough space and are doing well to avoid them swarming. Once you get to July they are unlikely to swarm so then you can check every couple of weeks and extract the honey. In the Autumn you need to get them ready for Winter and feed them, if required, until the Spring. More work than I can expected!
Very interesting. It must take some time to get the experience and have an eye for what is going on. Probably a few seasons ? Do you get rats ? Me and a mate shared an old wooden greenhouse, half each. I grew all sorts in my half, but the rats loved the melons. I liked setting the rat traps - very carefully ! Different league to a mouse trap We could have had a go with some bees, but never thought of it ....
I wouldn’t say I still really know what I’m doing but I’m getting better. The trouble is as soon as you think you are doing ok something goes wrong! I wouldn’t say you make much money from it unless you go big with loads of hives, but after a while it covers the costs and makes a bit of beer money. No issue with rats. You get wasps catching bees and robbing the nest and I had hornets (not the Asian ones) last year. They grab the bees and bite their heads off, bastards!
So one of my hives is still queenless and as we are going off on a three week trip next week i decided to bite the bullet and buy another queen, which turned up in the post this morning. Hopefully they will accept her and not decide to kill her and the hive will be back into production. I won’t be able to inspect it to see if she is ok as you need to leave it at least 7 days after you break the seal on the cage so hopefully the bees will behave whilst I’m away!
It amuses me that you can have bees sent to you by post. Doesn't all the aggro and stress of being sent through the post stop her laying?
That happened to me once. I'd built a compost clamp with slats at the front that lifted out. Wasps had built a nest inside the compost one year. If I tipped my grass cuttings in but didn't interfere with the wasps, they tolerated me. They come out to investigate when I went near but weren't aggressive and we managed to coexist. One day I wanted to lift out one of the slats. It was rain swollen and stuck so I kicked it... All hell was let loose. I was stung several times instantly and a swarm chased me into the house. I managed to keep most out but a couple got in and continued the attack. Luckily there was a can of Raid to hand and a blast of that sent them onto three cylinders and they crashed to the floor. Within 15 minutes the glands had come up under my arms and I felt dizzy and sick. Took some antihistamine and felt better after an hour or so. They breached the terms of their lease with that behaviour, so later that night when it was dark they got dusted with powder and that was the end of them. It occurred to me afterwards that I hadn't been stung by a wasp for years since I was a child. I wonder whether you lose resistance over time if you haven't been stung in a long time? I had one sting me on the base of the neck some time afterwards when it blew into my jacket when I was riding my bike and I hardly felt it. It was irritating but I had no reaction. The manager of the farming estate I was living on at the time was a Kiwi and he said that when European bees and wasps were introduced to Australia and New Zealand native people suffered severe allergic reactions because the stings were different to the native insects they were used to and they had no resistance. Don't know whether that's true but it makes sense.
Cumulative result of 3 wasp stings in a week while out with the dog. Took almost an hour to kick in, by which point I’d made it almost home and collapsed on my neighbours drive.
Reactions can be bad, and slightly delayed in my (limited) experience. My Dad was stung about 50 times whilst hiving a swarm, drove 30 odd miles home (with the bees in the back of the car - with their entrance blocked, obvs), then collapsed. And they say motorbikes are dangerous. Not as dangerous as old boys who just randomly do stuff. Those bees were the most viscious but the best honey producers we ever had.
