Swarm already...

[bk]

Found an interesting piece that told me how to calculate hive strength by counting foragers returning in one minute.  I'm not good at math, but this actually sounded interesting.  The formula is, N = 3 x (f/0.0138) where N = number of bees in the hive and f = number of bees arriving in one minute. 

My over-wintered hive had 112 in a minute, making my bee count about 24,348.  That would be the back hive pictured here.  You can usually figure about 2000 bees on a full deep frame.  The numbers seemed light to me since they were bursting at the seams when I added a honey super last Saturday. Today when my wife and I inspected we found the numbers fairly accurate.  Darn it.



Her majesty and friends had swarmed.  Found a couple swarm cells, no eggs, larvae at about the 5-6 testar stage, and a hive caring for brood, and bringing in lots of dandelion pollen and nectar.  Minor kick to self for not doing a split last weekend, but confident the bees know best.  At least I have a nice brood break to help control verroa.

[histopicker]

Looks like they are doing good!

[shawn]

What does the term "swarm" actually mean in this case? Is it good or bad? 

[Brad H.]

May 2, 2016 8:32:25 GMT -5 shawn said:

What does the term "swarm" actually mean in this case? Is it good or bad? 

A swarm means that basically the queen and workers sensed things were getting a bit too tight in the hive, so her and about half the hive take off out of the hive in search of new living quarters. It's anybody's guess where they end up, but most likely in a hollow tree somewhere. The bad news is that you lose the queen and several thousand bees out of your hive. The good news is that the remaining bees will raise a new queen and life goes on in your existing hive.

What bk was saying was that if he could have caught it last weekend he could have done a split, removing the queen and some of the workers and placing them in a new hive, and allow the existing hive to raise a new queen and continue to grow. So you get to keep all your bees this way.

I don't think its either good nor bad, like bk said you have to trust they know what they are doing.

[shawn]

Thanks Brad. I don't know anything about bees other than I don't like bugs, of any kind.

[Brad H.]

I can understand that. Bees are actually an incredible animal. Every hive is like a little society, and I tell ya what if the US was run like a honeybee colony you'd see alot less of the BS you see nowadays!

[bk]

May 2, 2016 13:57:24 GMT -5 Brad H. said:

I can understand that. Bees are actually an incredible animal. Every hive is like a little society, and I tell ya what if the US was run like a honeybee colony you'd see alot less of the BS you see nowadays!

How very true, Brad.  But I don't think we have to worry about that happening anytime soon.

The only thing of importance to the hive is the well being of the colony and continuing their genetic line.  Individual bees don't focus on their needs but on the needs of the colony.  Small example, a bee stinging you, does it in defense of the hive, and loses it's live because of that sting.

[histopicker]

I tend to look at the bees as individual cells in a larger organism. There are different classes of bees doing different tasks just like tho organs in our own bodies. As an individual the bee has little impact on the whole but if there were no foragers, the colony would die. The same for the nurses, or even the guards. Something to think about.

[bk]

Step son had a swarm today, thought I'd share what his looked like.  Settled about 10 feet up in an apple tree.  He was able to get them in a hive so the old saying was true, have another hive at a great time of the year.
A swarm of bees in May
  
Is worth a load of hay;

A swarm of bees in June

Is worth a silver spoon;

A swarm of bees in July

Is not worth a fly.

[shawn]

BK, How do you get them into a hive?

[bk]

May 8, 2016 20:46:01 GMT -5 shawn said:

BK, How do you get them into a hive?

In this case, he put an hive box with frames on the ground under the swarm.  Then he shook the tree a few times. Most of the bees and the Queen fell into the hive body the first good shake.  After a few good shakes, the bees that missed the hive came flying and crawling into the box.  All in all a good capture.

When bees swarm, they will usually hang out on a nearby tree, bush, post of a few hours until the scouts get everyone headed to their new home.  This is the time you want to capture them.  They are usually pretty docile and easy to get into a box.

Usually when mine swarm, I don't see them swarm and they are just gone - a problem associated with working away from the home apiary during the day.  

[shawn]

Thanks bk

[sease]

I don't know anything about bees as you may tell with my next question. In an earlier post someone said if they would have split their hive the weekend before they wouldn't swarm. Why couldn't they just split the hive a weekend to late?

[histopicker]

May 14, 2016 19:26:21 GMT -5 sease said:

I don't know anything about bees as you may tell with my next question. In an earlier post someone said if they would have split their hive the weekend before they wouldn't swarm. Why couldn't they just split the hive a weekend to late?

If you split it a weekend late it will have already swarmed and you will have no queen to move.
When we split a hive we are creating an artificial swarm and moving the queen to a new hive. If it already swarmed there is no point in splitting the hive.

[sease]

Thank you for the info.

[sease]

There was a confirmation this week of killer bees in Charleston SC. There was a private farm that was raising bees. They think they received them from some where in Florida. I don't know much about bees but aparently honey bees look alike and the only way to tell them apart is to do some test.

[histopicker]

May 27, 2016 18:29:07 GMT -5 sease said:

There was a confirmation this week of killer bees in Charleston SC. There was a private farm that was raising bees. They think they received them from some where in Florida. I don't know much about bees but aparently honey bees look alike and the only way to tell them apart is to do some test.

You are correct in that they do look alike. Africanized honey bees "(Killer Bees), are honey bees that have the genetics for over aggressive behavior. We now do DNA testing on suspect hives to determine if they have these genetics.
Here in Southern Utah where I live we have a huge problem with Africanized genetics. I have had the privilege of working with many of these hives and they will take the joy out of living.
Here, we need to avoid allowing our virgin queens to open mate because the Africanized drones (Male bees) are faster flyers than the drones of the common Italian or Carniolian bees we all want to keep and, will spread these undesirable genetics.
As for getting them in a package from Florida, that is highly likely. The whole south is populated with them but, they cannot as of yet survive the fridged winter temperatures of the northern states. 50 miles to the north of me they cannot survive!