Last night my son came running in and said "There's a HUGE swarm in the scrub oak!" We are just starting into swarm season, up here, and this is the earliest I've ever seen. It was just before sunset, so I jumped on the opportunity to get them settled in for the night.
Sure enough - my best guess is around 8-10lbs, hanging low in the scrub - about 3-5' off the ground. I piled up some empty supers & leveled them. It was getting cool and the light was fading by the time I got them set up. 'Nudged a medium with 5 frames of comb, from my sole winter dead out, up under the bottom of the swarm and they immediately started in. By morning they were settled in and I moved them right over to the spot that dead out had been.
There were so many bees that they were overflowing the 5 comb/five empty frames. I gave them another medium with 3 comb/7 empty, and they were all over half of it within 15 minutes.
Now the question is - which hive did they come from ( if any)? They were just ~10-15' from my end hive - awfully suspicious. All of the original colonies still look quite the same - no one obviously just gave up ~2/3 of it's force. All but one have a large foraging force, and that one has been lagging just a bit behind the others all spring (kind of normal).
I guess it's time to go queen cell hunting/checking... :wink:
Congrats! Hunting for queen cells will tell you if it's one of yours. I've had swarms come from who knows where and land by my hives as well as swarms that issued from my own hives. With that said, the ones that were from my hives were further away from the issuing hives than the ones that issued from unknown. I guess the queen my be drawn in by the smell of hives.
I checked #'s 1,2 & 5 , in decreasing order of original strength - no cells. The swarm is already looking like it's the 3rd or 4th strongest colony of (now) seven. I'm a bit baffled, but pleased. What a gift! I haven't gathered a prime swarm in years.
If a swarm in May is worth a load of hay, a swarm that big in April must really be worth something. But what rhymes with April.....grill, drill,frill....oh I know. A house on a hill :grin:
Congrats!
Quote from: hjon71 on April 23, 2015, 07:43:01 AM
If a swarm in May is worth a load of hay, a swarm that big in April must really be worth something. But what rhymes with April.....grill, drill,frill....oh I know. A house on a hill :grin:
Congrats!
It's a Thrill.
A few weeks ago, my wife called me at work. She was watching a large swarm move into a swarm trap. I asked her which hive it was coming from. She said none of them. She was watching them come from a different direction than my hives. They were all over the outside as well as the inside and I immediately moved them into a 2 medium, 10 frame hive. After dark I moved it into the apiary.
It is not uncommon to have swarms move into your apiary.
Jim
Well, my house is on a hill... and I had a spare hive to fill... and this swarm fit the bill!
good thing it's aprill
Quote from: Colobee on April 26, 2015, 11:54:28 AM
Well, my house is on a hill... and I had a spare hive to fill... and this swarm fit the bill!
That's pretty good:)