Shaker Bees

smallswarm · May 17, 2007, 09:46:29 AM

I have a lot of shaker bees doing the rounds. I have read that this behavior is related to swarming. Has anybody else noticed the good vibrations before a swarm? Thanks.

Happiness to all.

Matthew

beekeeperookie · May 17, 2007, 10:04:57 AM

ok i feeling dumb what are shaker bees never heard of them.

Brian D. Bray · May 17, 2007, 06:15:03 PM

When I was into my hives on Tuesday I saw a lot of bees (2-3 on each frame) doing the shake or the "I've found nector dance." The dances have more to do with imparting the location of nector sites than swarming but the dance for a new home location is not that much different. My hives are still building out the 1st brood chamber and are only about 2/3 there as I only feed a gallon of syrup per hive when starting them from either a package or swarm.

Even those frames that are only half drawn are 3/4 full of capped brood at the moment--so the queens are doing what they are suppose to do--laying in unfinished cells that are finished and capped after the eggs are laid. I also saw where the queens have gone back over the same frames and laid another arc of eggs in the more recently made comb.

My hives are not developed to the point that they are crowded enough to swarm and only one has build a supercedure cell.

I enjoy the waggle (shaker) dances as they are fun to watch. I also enjoy them because they usually mean the bees have found another food source. Waggle dances are nothing to be worried about, just the opposite.

smallswarm · May 18, 2007, 08:10:43 AM

This isn't the waggle dance, I don't think. There is no figure eight or circling. It's where one worker bee mounts another and vibrates its abdomen up and down. The shaking only lasts one second or two, and then the shaker bee walks around a bit and shakes another sister, and so on. From a human perspective, it looks like you were trying to wake somebody up. I'm not worried, just anxious for my swarm baby to split.

Mici · May 18, 2007, 08:13:35 AM

ha, noticed the same at the entrance, but don't know what it is, who cares, it looks funny :)

don't worry about swarms, swarms aren't bad, swarms are good, they're neccesary!

Shizzell · May 18, 2007, 01:58:55 PM

Swarms aren't good for honey production if you don't catch the swarm. Even if you do catch a swarm, 1 strong hive produces more honey and 2 weak hives. Also, if a hive swarms, cold winters are its worst enemy.

Jake

Mici · May 18, 2007, 02:59:41 PM

you are right, they're bad for honey production. still they are necessary.
look at it from bright side, next year you can have two strong hives :-D

on the contrary, it has been proven that swarm prevention is one of the causes for poor overwintering.

Shizzell · May 18, 2007, 04:46:10 PM

Yep, too many bees causes stores to go dramatically. You should have a good medium.

Jake

Brian D. Bray · May 18, 2007, 06:26:58 PM

For short distance from the hive you may not see a figure 8 in the dance. Also the dance you discribed (better the 2nd time) is like waking the bees up. It's like saying get off your butt and get to work. Believe it or not bees will sluff off now and then.

smallswarm · May 19, 2007, 09:10:20 AM

Brian, I do have some lazy bees. They call it a day and start festooning around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. That's why I want them to hurry up and swarm, so they can get to work building some new comb. They killed the last queen they raised - what? - so they could lazily hang on front of the box. I've spoiled them. I was hoping that all that shaking business was a 'get off your butt and find that box over there' dance. Wishful thinking, I know.

Michael Bush · May 20, 2007, 08:15:51 PM

They will dance on the surface of the cluster after it swarms and before it finds a home. These are scout bees trying to promote their location.

If you mean BEFORE they swarm yes, they sound quite different:

http://www.beesource.com/plans/apidictor.htm

smallswarm · May 21, 2007, 08:53:32 AM

Thank you, Michael, for that reference. I have been wanting to put a microphone into my hive since before I even had a hive. I can build that circuit, but where is the best place to put the mic? At the entrance or deep inside? I'm afraid the bees will start chewing on the wires. Better I think, to build them into the walls of a new box, than stick foreign objects into the living colony. This is great fun!