Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Swarms, Cut Outs, Trap Outs and Bee Trees => Topic started by: Riverrat on April 24, 2015, 09:29:29 am
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I was going to start splitting the nuc I over wintered on a 5 on 5 configuration a week or so ago. The weather had other Ideas as it has been a couple weeks of rain and storms. Keeping an eye on the hive I knew it was getting to the point of swarming . Yesterday I stepped out of the shop just in time to see the swarm issue and land in the bushes about 10 ft away. I hived them up and they are orientating to the new home today. The mother hive is a swarm I picked up last year late in the summer. I do believe I have a good queen. I couldnt believe the size of the swarm.
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs17.postimg.cc%2Fg9j61scsr%2F2015swarn.jpg&hash=47aba0832584cb79a26b0e59df045116bf41c4ca) (http://postimg.cc/image/g9j61scsr/)
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That's great! I can't wait for the day I find a swarm... I just hope they aren't my bees swarming!
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I hope I can reach it when I find it :)
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That is a pretty nice swarm out of a nuc. Did they leave nay bees behind? ;D
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That is a pretty nice swarm out of a nuc. Did they leave nay bees behind? ;D
They left some behind but the hive is noticeably slower today with traffic ;)
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After selling out my 80 hives a couple years ago and only keeping a swarm or 2 around I decided to build back to about 10 hives and keep it a hobby this year. I had the hive mentioned above that I started with. My intent was to use only bees that I picked up in swarms and splitting. Basically the challenge of getting to 10 without buying any bees. I am now up to 3. I kept some equipment out in the bee yards hoping to attract a swarm. I took a guy out wanting to get into beekeeping to give him a hive to get started. All hives looked as I had left them empty. Grabbing a good set up i started to disassemble the hive to load in his truck. I got the inner cover off that's when they boiled out of the bottom deep and lit me up. I do believe I threw the common sense check before you look out the window. Anyhow I am at 3 now and looks like it will be an easy shot to get to 10 this year.
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I, too, recently hived a large swarm. Because of it's unusual size, I suspect it is a "prime" swarm - the kind with the original mated queen from some hive. This is often described in the literature - "Large (prime) swarms" - tend to be basketball sized and up. Secondary, or after-swarms, are more commonly football/soccer ball sized, to occasionally as small as a softball - these usually have a virgin queen.
The one I caught was about the size of a beach ball, and fairly well filled two 10 frame mediums with about half comb/half bare frames. While the swarm was less than 20' from my hives, I haven't been able to find any hatched queen cells or notice any reduced activity among my hives - apparently a gift from some other nearby hive? Another hint - I run small cell frames ( bees are a bit on the small side), and the swarm bees are noticeably larger. It was almost like they were seeking me out - attracted to my Fine" operation... :laugh:
Good luck to all with catching swarms - instant increase!
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Good luck to all with catching swarms - instant increase!
Considering the price of bees now, a swarm is a real value.
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Considering what I just paid for some packages, the swarm I caught was worth ~ $250 (depending on how you value package queens). I'd estimate ~10 lbs of bees, judging from those 3 lb packages. It instantly became my 3rd or 4th strongest hive. It will likely help populate several nucs, come June-July.
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Picked this swarm up April 24th from one of my hives. They have drawn out 2 complete deeps and the hive is weighing roughly 75lbs. I didnt know they was packing it away this good. Kicked them off the feed and added a super today. We got a good flow on right now. But with this heat it wont last long