I learned something new about swarming today.

Meridith Ford Goldman contacted me today about a swarm of bees from her hive at her parents house.  When I arrived Meridith told me that her mom said they had started the behavior of landing in the wisteria tree and then making a clump on the ground about 25' away on Tuesday.

The couple of pounds of bees on the ground were a first swarm and the smaller swarm on the tree looked to be a secondary swarm.  But why was there bees on the ground and why would the swarm in the tree start to join the bees on the ground during the day?

After doing some reading on this while eating lunch, I learned that sometimes the queen is too fat with eggs to fly far.  So even though the workers wanted to land on a tree, her highness just was not able to do it.  I know that this was the first swarm since she's a mated queen.  I did get her I believe and hopefully the rest of them will march into the 10 frame deep with drawn comb we put out for them.

The bees in the wisteria seemed to be less organize and had a bit of a temperament.  The virgin queen was doing a really good job of hiding in the vines of the wisteria and even after cutting and brushing I know that I didn't get her.

So I believe that swarm in the wisteria was drawn to the mated queen on the ground, but had a virgin queen in the tree and just didn't really know what to do.  Hopefully the bees in the wisteria will join the other swarm.







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New queen cells

It's that time of year where the strong hives make a new queen and the old queen leaves the hive with about 1/2 the work force to find a new home.  Swarming is natural and a good sign that you came out of winter strong.  So why try to keep them from swarming?  Losing half your work force right at nectar flow is unfortunate.  Not the end of the world, but a bummer none the less.

That cup is built in that position and in a 1/2 peanut shape in-case the colony decides to make a queen.  The cell was empty.

Several queens are raised at once when swarming is impending.  If you scrape all the queen cells off thinking you are going to stop the swarm, if the old queen has already flown off,  you could have no queens at all now.

If you look carefully in the cell you can see her future highness floating in royal jelly and being attended by the nurse bees.  The cell will be capped in about 3 more days and she will emerge about 8 days later.   

Swarm kit list

Three swarms yesterday and more to come this  week with the warm weather.  Are you ready?
Swarm Catching:

• Have your regular gear (veil, gloves,  smoker, hive tool ect)
• White sheet, to catch a clump on ground
• Box to put them in
• Nuc box, if you have piece of dark comb to add that helps.
• Cardboard box with close-able flap on side.
• Swarm bucket with extension pole.
• tape for cardboard box.
• hedge clippers.
• ratchet strap to keep nuc together
• hardware cloth, foam or dish town to close entrance
• stapler if hardware cloth
• ladder
• camera
• red light flashlight, bees can’t see red.

• Questions
• Address, special directions?
• Where is the swarm?
• How high is it?
• How big is it?
• How long has it been there?
• Has the swarm been spayed with anything?

• Tell the customer how long till you will be there and reassure them that bees when swarming are very docile and that you will relocate them.

The Frazer Center

The Frazer Center is going to have two new hives this year.  One from complete scratch and another one from a die out last year.  Amy is also going to have two hive at her house and two hive at Twin Lakes Camp.  So 5 complete new hives, frames and foundation to prepare for the upcoming April 2 pick-up date.

You can do it Amy!

First swarm of the season

Anne-Marie, AKA, the Celtic Gardener called yesterday after witnessing a swarm from one of her hives.  It was a two person job for sure.  They had swarmed across her yard to a very ivy covered hill and up a tree about 8'.
The bees weren't the docile bees that a swarm usually is.  I think it's because they were only in the tree about an hour before removal.  No time to let the homeless state of their situation to sink in.

When Anne-Marie swept them into the bucket, I have never smelled such a strong banana odor in my life!  The first attempt I don't think got the queen, but completely filled the bucket!  After looking for the fanning sign of having the queen we once again endured the very agitated bees to try to get the queen.  We got her the second time.

Thank you to Anne-Marie for letting me help her on her first swarm.  She was a trooper! 

What was in the extra jumbo egg?

102.5 egg with double yolk.

The Extra, extra jumbo egg and egg info

Yesterday my daughter went to put the girls up and found these two eggs in the nest box.

The blue egg weighs 102.4 grams and the brown egg weighs 54.2 grams.  I don't really know much about
the grading system of eggs and ran across this helpful page with information on quality & grades of eggs.
A Jumbo egg must weigh at least 70gm.  The brown egg fell into the medium category between 49-55gm.

Egg in carton