Swarm Crazy In my area!

[DonMcJr]

Im the president of a Beekeeping Club in Michigan. We've had a cooler than normal Summer and an AWESOME honey harvest compared to the last few years.

Now the last week or so alot of Beehives are swarming...something we have not seen this late. Most of the hives had room to expand... any thoughts on this? Getting alot of calls asking why...

I have my theories but I'd like to hear everyone else's.

Were about 6 weeks most from 1st frost and freezing temps could be as close as 2 months away on some years...

[Perry]

I have an idea, but many would probably call it hoaky!
We're seeing the same thing here (along with all the after swarms like I've never seen before).
I attribute it to Mother Narure and her way of making up for all the tough stuff the bees have endured for the last several years. Nothing like throwing a bunch of colonies out there, and some of them may succeed. Nothing lost as long as the parent colony re-queens.
Just the musings of a Crazy Canuck. 

[Bakersdozen]

I have an idea, but many would probably call it hoaky!
We're seeing the same thing here (along with all the after swarms like I've never seen before).
I attribute it to Mother Narure and her way of making up for all the tough stuff the bees have endured for the last several years. Nothing like throwing a bunch of colonies out there, and some of them may succeed. Nothing lost as long as the parent colony re-queens.
Just the musings of a Crazy Canuck. 

I wouldn't call that hoaky.  It may not be the answer exclusively, but part of the answer.
After stressful conditions, like drought, a tree will produce seeds like crazy!  Same concept.  It's nature's way of ensuring the species survives.

[DonMcJr]

I like your thinking! LOL

[Jen]

That issue was discussed this spring with my swarming episode. I think Perry's idea has some definate weight. 10 swarms and the after swarms and the cast swarms... maybe it's all the same thing. But I do know this, two of the swarms went to a friend who hived them properly out on farm land, I don't think they anchored them down with brood and a queen excluder. The bees were gone the next day.

We took the extra steps I learned on the forum and made sure the queen was in the hive, a frame of brood and eggs, and a queen excluder, lemongrass oil, the whole shibang, kept the queen in the hive for 3-4 days. And they still kept swarming.

After we re-queened the swarming stopped right now. Before I introduced the new queens, I had to glean the hives of any queen cups, cells, anything queen related. One hive I took out 29 live queen cells. So these bees were in supercedure manic mode.

That's my story ~

[DonMcJr]

Interesting... my 6 hives and 4 double nucs aren't swarming...but we are getting swarm calls and also quite a few club members are calling asking why their hives swarmed the past week and most if not all said they had room to expand...

I have 2 theories...

1. Package Bees from GA and CA... not used to our winters and with this years awesome honey season supers are removed and they swarm due to a ton of bees and no more supers...and they dont know what kinda of winter is around the corner and they new queen may not have time to mate and such but in warm climates they did...

2. Im wrong and the bees know the Queens do have time to mate and they are downsizing to make it through the winter with a brand new young queen... (my hope cause thats a good thing in my eyes)

So what does everyone thing of my 2 theories?

[Jen]

Well..... Hmmm....I had a lot of experience this last spring, but I'm still no expert on swarming. The only question I have about theory 2, is why would bee's downsize before winter, aren't they supposed to be building up? the more bees the bigger the cluster, the more chance of staying warm all winter?

I've seen pics of the lighthouse during winter there in Mich, seems your winters are pretty brutal...

It will be interesting to see what the other say 

[DonMcJr]

Downsize so there's a smaller cluster thus eating less stores...cause if my hives went into winter like they were when I harvested honey 2 weeks ago theyd eat themselves out of house and home in 3 to 4 months, lol they were booming!

[Jen]

Hu? Haven't heard of that, but definate food for thought 

[Bakersdozen]

In the "For what it's worth" category, I heard the farmer's almanac is predicting a bitter, wet, nasty, bitter, cold winter.  If true, we will want to ensure our hives have plenty of stores and watch for spring starvation.

[LazyBkpr]

Thats what we had last winter, would not suprise me to see it again, even four or five years in a row..

   I have had more calls for cut outs and swarms in the last ten days than I had all summer...   Have a bee tree to go pick up as well..    Making me wish I had left my swarm boxes up.
   Cool wet spring and summer. Maybe the bees were waiting for the HEAT to arrive..   No, Not Blue..   

[Jen]

Cold long spring here as well, we we're still building a fire well into June

[riverbee]

"In the "For what it's worth" category, I heard the farmer's almanac is predicting a bitter, wet, nasty, bitter, cold winter.  If true, we will want to ensure our hives have plenty of stores and watch for spring starvation."

i hope not, i hope it is not like last winter, but have heard plenty of predictions, and my local farmer friends 'swear' by the farmers almanac.  anyway, very good advice bakers 12, to see that our hives have plenty of stores and to watch for spring starvation!