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Swarming Hive June 2013
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Around two
weeks ago, Hive 2 started to make 'play cups' the beginnings of
Queen Cells (QC), and the start of the swarming process. These QC
were
around 6 in number.
I performed
an ‘artificial swarm’ which is simple mimicking the natural process
of swarming by removing the queen and all the flying bees to another
hive, this hive I called Hive 3.
I left one
QC in Hive 2 and removed all the others (three to three ‘mating
hives’ and another one to a Nucleus Hive, the rest I put in a
Tupperware container to take photos.
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A few
days later, hive 2 queen emerged from cell. She then has to mate and
hopefully in a week or so start laying eggs. The hive is then complete, and
fully functional again.
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Back to Hive 3. Two days ago I ‘checked the hive’, this was to
ensure that no more QC’s had been produced. All ok.
Today, at 0955, I noticed a large number of bees coming out the
hive. I went upstairs for a clearer view and there was a cloud of
bees at the top of the garden. This cloud gradually moved closer
towards the house. They had
swarmed. |
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Waiting patiently for another hour, they settled in three small
groups on some plants in my garden.
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Thankfully they had settled at knee high off the ground.
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Deploying the rescue party, (me in bee suit with suitable wooden box
and a water sprayer), I cut the plant that they were hanging to and
dropped them carefully into the box, repeating for the other two
groups.
Placing the lid on, I then waited for another hour allowing all the
bees to enter through the small opening at the bottom of the box.
A little rain helped this progress. |
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Having
looked inside hive 3, I realised I had missed a QC (the bees
are very good at hiding them!). This queen was almost ready to
emerge, causing the resulting swarm.
I estimate from her size and formation she is around 12 days
'old' meaning, 4 days from emerging from her cell fully formed.
Once this QC had been removed, I emptied the wooden box into the
hive. All back where they belong.
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This picture show the bees fanning at the entrance to the hive, this
allows the stragglers to find their new home.
So, what have I learnt?
The bees know what they are doing – even if I don’t.
Look more carefully for QC.
Bees swarming although alarming (or 'scary' as my neighbour states),
are the calmest bees possible.
Let’s see how they all get on.
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Finally, I now know that my son is ‘ok’ with bee stings. While
playing in the garden, a bee found his hair interesting and got
caught up. He remained calm as I had taught him. Still the bee stung
him, a few ice lollies and he recovered-she did not.
A
picture of the sting is shown magnified x30.
Once I showed
him the sting I had removed he seemed still interested in bees! He
still wants his own bee suit…… |
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