We are seeing alot of late swarms this year I have have never experienced this. I wanted bring it here for discussion so heres whats been discussed so far.... Jill Lixey-Hardy: Hey Everyone, I was just out to the bees. They were getting ready to swarm! I opened the lid and lifted the inner cover and they were in a cluster hanging there. So I added the new box and shook them off down into it! They were also underneath the entrance so I scooped them up and dropped them in also! *any and all advise welcome! Liz Masters: Jill, MANY beekeepers are experiencing this late swarm issue. I wish we had all the answers. We can only speculate. The facts are: Its been a PERFECT year, bees are nectar bound in their own brood chambers - limiting their queens laying, so despite the fact that beekeepers have added plenty of space, they are still bound in their own center. Now maybe is that good of a year that bees are actually healthy enough to requeen their hive for fall?? Either way, the good news is that you should go into fall with a brand new queen Don McChristian: I have never seen swarms this late...so I dont know the answer...I agree with Liz response could be...my other thoughts are not enough room after taking honey supers off...maybe good years we need to pull honey then do splits? Also could be not enough room from us not realizing how fast they store and cap the honey...I had my overwintered hive swarm right in front of me in june and still have no clue why they had room too... lets just hope the bees know best! Don McChristian also said: Also you could split the hive... If you can get another hive (bottom board, 2 deeps and frames, inner cover and outer cover) take the frames without the queen cells that have uncapped and capped brood and put them in the center of the bottom deep and make sure the queen is NOT on them. (4 frames) Then on each side of them put 3 frames of honey or empty frames if theres no honey. Leave the 2nd deep new framesfor them to draw out. Make sure you find the queen and put her in the new hive. Then with the old hive frames with queen cells in middle and capped and uncapped brood then again honey on the outside 3. The new hive with queen will think they swarmed and the old hive will make a new queen. Dont put any honey supers on and feed them so they have stores for the winter...you can also put frames of honey on the outside of the top deeps...try to even it out so neither hive has to work harder to store honey. If all goes well you saved yourself from losing your queen and half the bees and will have 2 hives! Typed this fast off the top of my head so if anyone sees any problems chime it but it should work... Oh and split the bees evenly in both hives...
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 08:22:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015