I got a call yesterday for a swarm. these days of the year, they are always paper wasps, hornets etc. I asked a hundred questions and realized, just maybe the homeowner was right. They were only 5 miles down the road, so off I went. Honeybees!!! Pretty nice size too, about 4lbs. I combined to a weak hive after removing the existing queen to a nuc just in case. Felt good to get just one more as fall is definitely approaching.
If its still warm you could get a swarm, don't forget they may have simply absconded from a felled tree or failed attempt by someone to 86 them from a wall void or something.
Great catch.
...JP
I got one too about a week or so ago. I figure this time of year the hives are so full of honey and somebody forgot to check and add supers so they got full and split. I figure with a bit of feeding (8 weeks left to do that) they should have a full deep by winter and that should do them fine.
Rick
Congrats on the catch.
Will you overwinter your removed queen in the nuc or try to build it up into a deep before then?
- Jess
Got a call the other day from my niece who's friend was freaking out about a swarm in a tree in her front yard. She said it was three seperate swarms. Sounded doughtful to me but at least my neice knows a honey bee when she sees one. The swarm had left by the time I got to the location. From discriptions it was a very large swarm that had to cluster in 3 seperate but branches of the tree.
Sounded like a hive abconding to me. The gal wanted to know why the bees would leave so soon after alighting (2 hours) and I advised her "because they had a place all picked out and was only taking a breather."
There was still about 50 bees buzzing around the tree but nothing to hive so it might be viewed as a wasted trip but I did educate some people a little about bees and they and the neighbors now know who to call in case they have another one.
Quote from: Jessaboo on August 20, 2008, 02:12:43 PM
Congrats on the catch.
Will you overwinter your removed queen in the nuc or try to build it up into a deep before then?
- Jess
I dont intend to overwinter nucs if I can help it. Too small and need to much attention. She is not a great queen either. One of my purvis queens. I will probably 86 her after i determine other hive health parameters.
They flew the coop,....
your purvis queens are not good ?
Quote from: teebo on August 21, 2008, 10:13:53 PM
your purvis queens are not good ?
Just one is a dud so far. I am still on fence w/ the purvis queens. They were very swarmy but so were all bees this year in our area. I will continue to experiment w/ them as well as vp queens and my ferals as well. I think all beeyards need more diversity just in case you get superceded.