[Laurieston]

Mixed feelings today as one of my hives has swarmed.  I saw that it was heading that way, and saw the, still open, Queen cells on Monday.  Last night read up on artificial swarming, and today it is clear that they are gone.  No obvious sign of them in the garden, how long do they hang around (I know it's related to the length of a piece of string) but I mean on average?  Is it still worth me hunting for the hanging swarm tomorrow - and how easy is it to find (I've never seen one).

I feel bad, like I failed to manage them, but also a little proud that my girls have had a baby.  Could have given it to a friend however who would like bees.

Does anyone know how far they (can) travel to a new hive site? I'm wondering if I might find them building a colony in a old tree or somesuch nearby.

[VEG]

They can fly miles away so unless you can find them in the immediate area then I would give up. You now need to reduce the risk of loosing a caste swarm from the same hive. Go back into the hive and find the queen cell that had the grub in. Handle the frame gently. Put it to one side, then go through all the other frames and shake off the bees into the brood box, do one frame check it for more queen cells. If you find any then squash them. Once you are sure there are no more, go back to the frame you chose with the queen cell on and brush the bees off gently into the brood box. Then check this last frame to make sure there are no other queen cells on it. Then put hive back together and leave it alone for at least three weeks. Then go back into the hive and look to see if the new queen has started to lay.

[darkbrowneggs]

Generally the first spring swarm will be the old queen, and as such she will not want to fly.  The workers force her to and she will generally land as soon as possible, and the swarm will then cluster round her while the workers search for new premises. 


How long they stay will depend on the weather and availablity of potential nest sites.  If the weather is damp they may stay till they all eventually die off, so it might be worth looking. 


If you have had a swarm from the hive before then look where it hung the previous time or nearby


If you see them flying try the old 'tanging' trick ie get something metal and bang it loudly and watch then as it will often bring them down to land


You could try putting bait hives round in case you can catch any secondary swarms.  Best place is at about eye level, and particularly good is where you have seen bees investigating
 
Best think to bait bees to a hive is old comb or lemongrass essence,  The certainly don't like new wooden boxes. 


Good luck - I miss my bees

[Bionic]

Lovely pictures DBE.
The local bee inspector told us to put an old hive up high I.e. On top of the stable or garage roof. When looking for a new home the bees might just take up residence but once they have decided to swarm there are no guarantees where they will go.

[Laurieston]

After 2 days my OH came in with a grin, "come and see what I found!" and won my heart again.  There, lying on the ground, about 20m from the hive (a topbar hive) was a mass of brown/yellow.  Good tip darkbrowneggs, thank you.  I must have walked right past them last night, but I was looking upwards and listening hard.  Actually they were not making any noise at all when we found them.

I have never seen a swarm before, but heard a lot about them.  Veil, gloves and boots on, box and tried to get them into a box.  Being on the ground this not so easy, ended up ripping up the nettles they were sitting on/under/around up and putting the lot into the box.  At first they were really calm, but the ripping did not please them.  Good thing the gloves were thick.  Rain started, closed up most of box and went for dinner.  When I came back the stragglers had gone into the box (so I'm thinking the Queen is in the box) and I tipped it into the unsued end of the topbar hive.  First I put some of the newly drawn comb (which they made before they swarmed) into their end of the hive, to encourage them to stay.  There are some nettles in with them now, so will have to go in in a few days to make sure they don't get built into the new comb I'm hoping they're going to make.

Tonight I am feeling high.  Bees are just so wonderful.  My 9yr old daughter, on the pic., as I put her to bed said "I love the bees Daddy" and I agree.  They are just so different from other life forms, and so interesting (if not cuddly).

The next thing to do will be to check they settle in the new end of the tbh and check out what VEG had to say about avoiding cast swarms. 

Thanks everyone.

[HesterF]

I think it might have been easier just to try and get them to run up into something. We had a swarm last year (before I got my own bees) and our neighbouring bee keeper came around to take them. They were hung on a branch so he knocked them down into a sheet, then put them on the ground and let them run up into a skep thing (propped up a bit so they could just go into the dark opening). Once he'd seen the queen go in (no idea how he spotted her) and the workers started to fan the entrance, he know all was well and left them to it until dark when he could close them up and move them.

[Laurieston]

Today again wet, windy and grim.  Little flying going on, from both the original colony in my topbar hive and from my traditional hives.  The new swarm, in the other end of the topbar hive is doing nothing: No one flying in our out.  I wondered if they had gone, but I can see them through the window, which has condensation on the inside.  If the weather is nice tomorrow I shall try to see what they are doing inside, building or what.  But I am concerned that they are not flying, I even stuck a stick into the entrance hole to check that it was not blocked - it was not.  I suppose they carried enough food for a day or two with them, so they might not need to go foraging, but it is now 4 days since they left...

Next time I'll try to get them to walk in, much less disturbing for the bees I am sure.

[Laurieston]

Update on this swarm.  Today is 3 weeks, and exactly on cue (thanks VEG) there is new brood in the hive.  Interesting to see that it is all about the same age, logical I know, but different from my other hives where the Queen has been laying over the weeks.  Very pleased to see that the whole swarm, capture and restart process has completed. 

I do love my bees.

[HesterF]

Yay! Well done. I moved out some eggs and bees from my successful hive to the one that failed over the winter about four weeks ago. They drew out queen cells successfully so I'm waiting on eggs but haven't seen them yet (or a queen for that matter - although the bees seem happy so I think she's there somewhere). Quite stressful!

[cloddopper]

Muvver nature knows best and works best in most cases .
 I'm so please to read that you both have what looks like a successful conclusion.

Now if you can sneak a small neuc to start up before the last week of June you can unite it in early September to give the over wintering hive a big boost of nectar & pollen  collectors .