BeeKeeping

Kitten_Pie

I have had a search but couldn't see an actual beekeeping thread. I have been on other beekeeping forums but find that a lot of the members are long term beekeepers and don't like newbies.

My friend went on the other week panicking about a swarm only to be laughed at. It wasn't helpful.

As I use this forum for practically every aspect of my life I thought that this might be the place for me

Having searched and seen that there are other beekeepers around I was wondering if you would be able to offer advice/support. We are a part of the BBKA so have our membership insurance etc and also part of a beekeeping community although their organisation for meetings isn't always the best.

I have a beehive which we got last August (very late in the season) our bees are lovely and docile where I am able to open up the hive without a suit. We keep it in my SIL garden because we are by a public pathway which wasn't appropriate due to numerous reasons.

This winter we haven't been able to get into the hive due to the rain and how cold it has been. We were quite slack over the winter with family bereavements, apart from feeding them we haven't checked.

Yesterday we went round with our kit and they had swarmed (Yay! - Sarcasm) up a lamp post in a quiet area where they could be easily reached. We only have one hive so called in a collector who came and collected them. We checked our bees to find 3 chewed open queen cells and 11 capped queen cells. The collector informed us that due to the winter and inspections being difficult she had had numerous calls (phew! not just us) she also said that we had three days before the swarmed again.

We closed the hive and went to do some reading. Today we returned with our plan of action to find that they had swarmed again. (Yay! - Sarcasm) Thankfully it was in the garden with easy access. Again we called a collector (different one because the original was on holiday now) She came and collected the swarm and helped us with our hive.

We have left one capped queen cell because we couldn't see a queen virgin or otherwise and didn't want to leave the hive without a queen. All the others were destroyed. Hoping that it there is a queen already in the hive she will find the cell and destroy it, but know this is putting us in the position that we may have another swarm at any point. The neighbours know about the bees and are on the whole happy to have them there but I don't want to push their acceptance if I can help it. So far they haven't noticed the swarms but if they carry on swarming it won't be long before one ends up in their garden.

Any suggestions/Advise appreciated. I realise we are novices and are learning as we go however we do love our bees and are trying to do what is right.

Realised that this has become an epic post, thank you if you managed to read it or most of it

Kitten_Pie

After realising there was a huge amount of text to get through, I thought it might be a bit more manageable with some photos from today .

Here is our swarm found in the tree:



Close up of the bees:



We manage to get them into a sophisticated box:



They made it into the box and are off to a nice new home

poppysarah

My neighbour is waiting for a swarm to go in her hive!

RAS

I just had a text to say that we have our 4th swarm since Tuesday from two colonies.

What you did or did not do over winter is off very little importance. What mattered was the earliest inspection. One of our experienced local bee keepers only inspected his hives for the first time last week, but that was early enough to prevent problems. With the very variable weather colonies are not inspected for periods exceeding the 8 days a queen cell needs.

The inspection on our colonies last week did not go into either of the boxes containing the bulk of the brood. So they missed 12-15 queen cells in both boxes.

One lot had no queen cells 8 days before swarming and is down to two cells which will hatch this week. They were sealed so we had to leave two cells in case.

The other lot had hatched 3 queens before we got in at the weekend and three more yesterday although we caught 2 of them. We have a swarm and two casts on three consequative days and I am going home shortly to help sort out the latest lot. Hoping that is the end of it.

All other cells destroyed and the excess queens given away.

Kitten_Pie

RAS you sound on top of it to a certain extent. Sounds similar to what we have.

It is really raining down here today so hoping that has put them off swarming, did check the area just to make sure earlier. Once it is a brighter day I will go round and check the remaining capped queen cell, we need to treat them with oxylic acid anyway.

Hope things go well for you today and that you are able to get things sorted.

Kitten_Pie

poppysarah, it is a shame your neighbour is in Manchester or she could have had some bees. Don't think they would like to go in a jiffy bag;)

Has your neighbour got anything in the hive to attract a swarm?

poppysarah

Kitten_Pie wrote: »

poppysarah, it is a shame your neighbour is in Manchester or she could have had some bees. Don't think they would like to go in a jiffy bag;)

Has your neighbour got anything in the hive to attract a swarm?

No I don't think they'd like being in a bag!

I don't think so - She's got a beekeeping friend looking out for a swarm for her.

Kitten_Pie

I have just found out that my uncles 3 hives didn't make it through the winter.

Poppy I saw this while looking for bee supplies, I have never used it so don't know if it works but thought it can't hurt.

http://www.fragile-planet.co.uk/swarm-lure.html

poppysarah

OO thanks! I'll have to pop round and tell her about it.