A swarm innnnnnnnnn August?

[danno]

I know its still july but close enough.  I was mowing washed out star thistle by one of my yards and as I passed a pallet of four the activity was going full tilt or at least I thought.  On my second pass around the field I noticed that it was a healthy swarm that set down in a low brach of a bush about four feet off the ground. Finish mowing, headed home and grabbed my swarm stuff that had all been put away for the season and headed back.  It was a nice basket ball size that was a breeze to box.  I'll have them draw a few frames for me and combine them somewhere this fall.   

[D Coates]

Keep them fed consistantly and I think you'll be amazed how fast they will grow.  I caught a volleyball size swarm in August last year and fed them steadily (they didn't eat that much do to their size) into winter and overwintered them as a 5 frame nuc.  They made it through and gave me 60+ pounds of honey this year.

[tandemrx]

On Monday I went to my bee yard to put a feeder on a nucleus hive that will need a lot of help to make it through winter but has lots of eggs and larvae in the works.

Anyway, last week I visited and all 8 of our hives seemed to be finally getting into a good groove, were all queenright, and though we have to be towards the end of any flow, they seem to be actively filling up supers finally.

I had my suit on and was just watching the front of the hives and all seemed normal - busy hives were very busy, less busy hives were usual state of less busy but going in and out.

Then I walk behind the hives and hear the unmistakable sound of 5 to 10,000 bees NOT IN A HIVE.  I follow my ear and about 40 feet behind my hives I see a swarm in the air and as I get closer I see a ball of bees about 20 feet up in a tree, but it dissolved in front of my eyes in about 10 seconds and joined the bees in the air.  They headed out across a neighboring hay field and I grabbed a cardboard nuc box and gave chase.  I followed it about 500 yards across the hay field sometimes walking fast, sometimes running to keep up with them.  Then I ran into a smallish corn field where they had the distinct advantage of flight and I watched them as they crossed the field heading towards a tree line between fields.  I lost sight of them as they neared the tree line.

I found away around the corn field (thinking at any time the farmer might come out and shoot this alien in a full white suit carrying a suspicious box) and made it to the tree line.  No sign of the bees, although I did think I saw a couple straggler bees making a bee line through the tree line to another set of woods off in the distance.

I waved goodbye and while disappointed at one of my hives being weaker, felt some satisfaction that I am helping to populate the countryside with bees.  :-\

I was really shocked that I had a swarm this late in the season.  late Last week I checked and there was no reason to add any more supers to any of my hives.  Most had more than ample room.

I am getting to understand that even under optimal conditions, bees will be bees and bees will swarm.

At least you caught yours.

I don't even know which hive my swarm came from.  Unless I were to do full inspections of each hive to look for queen cells and gaps in egg production I don't think I will ever know which hive they came from.

Hope I don't have afterswarms.

[FRAMEshift]

I am getting to understand that even under optimal conditions, bees will be bees and bees will swarm.
.... Unless I were to do full inspections of each hive to look for queen cells and gaps in egg production I don't think I will ever know which hive they came from.

Hope I don't have afterswarms.

It's hard to watch your hives so closely that you pick up on new swarm cells in time.  They build the cells, cap them and are off.  What works better is to keep track of the brood nest congestion and make sure that there are plenty of empty frames in the brood core.  That will help prevent swarms.  Better than chasing them after the fact.

[tandemrx]

Frameshift,
I'd be willing to be that whatever hive they came from had empty frames (or near empty with drawn comb with space to lay eggs) in the hive bodies for my most recent swarm.

I am getting more convinced that congestion or "overcrowding" is a factor in swarms, but certainly not the only factor, or even the critical factor.

Another beekeeper from this forum had 3 new packages this year.  Each one of them swarmed and each one had multiple empty frames in the hive bodies.

As you say, relieving congestion will "help prevent swarms", but it still won't totally prevent it.

[Storm]

I read somewhere that second year Italian queens will almost always try to swarm, crowded or not.  I don't know how true this is, but it has happened in many/most of the hives I've monitored.  Maybe they're just extra-prolific at that time.  Who knows?

[FRAMEshift]

Frameshift,
I'd be willing to be that whatever hive they came from had empty frames (or near empty with drawn comb with space to lay eggs) in the hive bodies for my most recent swarm.

I am getting more convinced that congestion or "overcrowding" is a factor in swarms, but certainly not the only factor, or even the critical factor.

Another beekeeper from this forum had 3 new packages this year.  Each one of them swarmed and each one had multiple empty frames in the hive bodies.

As you say, relieving congestion will "help prevent swarms", but it still won't totally prevent it.

Good grief.  I guess I have to agree with you.  Today we checked a hive that was split in late June. The hive raised a new queen who started laying in the middle of July.  There were empty foundationless frames in the brood nest and plenty of room in the upper box for honey.  But there were also 4 queen cells, three of them capped.  So I'm feeling pretty embarrassed right now, telling someone else how to avoid a swarm.  Looks like this colony is headed for a little trip.