A Month in the Apiary - May

Well, the new beekeeping season is well and truly upon us, once again. The swarms I wrote about last month are coming in thick and fast. These are being passed out to new Beeks and those that lost colonies over the winter.

I have yet to meet a beekeeper who has not lost bees through swarming. It is one of those things that we know bees do, but sometimes in the rush of the season we just don’t get round to doing our swarm control in time. We come back to find our beloved queens have disappeared along with a good majority of the flying bees. The nurse bees remain, looking after the brood in the hive, until a new queen emerges. There are many reasons for bees to swarm. It may be the old queen is failing or the hive is simply fed up with her. In any event they prepare a queen cup, an egg is moved into it, and it is fed with copious amounts of Royal Jelly. Sixteen days later the virgin queen will emerge, and her first job will be to pop round the hive looking for other queen cells and eliminate her sister queens!

A swarm attractant – essentially Lemon Grass oil - is useful as it can keep a swarm from flying out of the apiary. It is also helpful in catching swarms, whether passing from elsewhere or hanging temporarily in a tree nearby. It is basically a spare box or hive normally placed in an existing apiary. Both the swarm lure and wipes can be used in a bait hive to encourage swarms into it. Old comb can also be used, for example some frames from another colony (disease free of course!), as the bees like the smell of the wax.

I’ve already collected a couple of swarms. Sadly, there’s no pleasing all the bees and one of them left the warm and comfortable hive I’d provided and swarmed on elsewhere.

I have purchased four Buckfast queens which duly arrived. I then removed a frame of brood, a frame of pollen and a frame of honey from the strongest hives, placed them in an empty hive and left them for thirty-six hours. The new queen, inside a ‘Butler’ cage was then placed inside the queenless hive. She has one exit from the cage, bunged up with fondant. The queen eats one end, the bees the other and after twenty-four hours she’s free in the hive and the new monarch! More on this next month.

If you do see a swam, do give me a ring and I’ll pop round and collect it.

Nick Pendleton - 07931751556