Lower Swarms This Year?

[blueblood]

Hi Guys/Gals!  I know I know, I have been AWOL.  I am still alive though!  My bees are doing great and the hives are full of honey!  But, very few swarms this year.  I have had 2 in my yard (13 or so last year) and no calls from the public.  Very strange.  I have blamed it on our wet and cold spring.  I added honey supers very early so maybe that helped keep them satisfied with their room too?

[Lburou]

With all those swarms on your three foot pine trees, it is pretty hard to get lower swarms than that! 

Glad to see you posting again. 

[blueblood]

Thanks Lb!  Those pines are now six feet tall!  Ha!  But still, easy to get.  I have been doing life.  Two daughters of the four married off in the last five months.  A college and High school graduation.  Working night shift now.  Spending a lot of extra time hunting for Native American Artifacts.

[riverbee]

dave, funny, i thought of you today! i really did, was wondering about you! i was reminiscing about the net calls with you and perry!
fun stuff!

i know you are a busy fellar.......
swarms, marriages, graduations and chasing after criminals.........

hunting native american artifacts? find any?  me too, have a great collection! more fun stuff!

welcome back, always awesome to hear from you and read your posts!

[efmesch]

Overjoyed to see you on line again after such a long absence. 

Here too swarms have been "out of season" this year.  I haven't seen a single swarm in my neighborhood--but that at least solves my problem of having too many hives (although it's nice to use swarms to strengthen regular hives without making increase).

Great news to learn that two of your daughters got married---and all within the span of five months--that's tough on the parents.
Two down and two to go---before you realize it, you'll start suffering from the empty nest syndrome.   That leads to an entirely new stage in life. 

Just keep enjoying the family and keep yourself safe from all those nutsy, illegal gunslingers running around the country. 

[Bakersdozen]

Congratulations, blueblood!  You have had a lot on your plate.
The talk around here is that swarms are down also.  We had a cold wet spring that overnight turned into high heat and humidity.  The temperatures are at least 10 degrees above normal.  I am certain that the high temps have knocked the nectar out of a lot of nectar sources.  That lack of nectar flow will affect swarm behavior.  We are seeing washboarding going on already.  That's usually a summer dearth activity. 

[Lburou]

...hunting for Native American Artifacts.

That is fun.  I spent a day with my son on the Texas/Mexico Border on & around the filming location for the town scenes on "Lonesome Dove".  A hundred yards away, I found piles (now scattered) of shards leftover from making arrowheads.  Found some arrowheads too.  It gets you back to nature for sure.  Follow your heart and your interests, or, you will be too old do it when you really have time.