Author Topic: Swarming bee's  (Read 2963 times)

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Offline Mikey N.C.

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Swarming bee's
« on: August 05, 2019, 03:15:14 pm »
Had a beek call yesterday, said he was cutting grass at 8:00am , looked over and 1 box was swarming, he said bee's went up in a pine 60 ft. high . said bee's came down to a 10ft. dogwood , then 15-30 mins. later went back to same box they left. Has anyone heard of this? He is having a bad problem with shb.

Offline iddee

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Re: Swarming bee's
« Reply #1 on: August 05, 2019, 03:23:13 pm »
Not swarming. Trying to abscond. They will be gone in the next 72 hours if he doesn't move them into an SHB free hive ASAP.
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
― Shel Silverstein

Offline Jen

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Re: Swarming bee's
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2019, 02:47:39 am »
Okay, now Iddee, I had two absconds last year. The first one, earlier in the year. They didn't fly out of the hive and flee, they simply left in an hours time, leaving the queen behind. She just stood there in the bottom of the box all alone. I don't understand what happened here.

Then in the end of summer I noticed one of my bigger hives simply disappeared, just like that! That was my first abscond ever! Queen gone too.

Looked up what causes absconding and the first on the list is lack of food. Which makes perfect sense because the entire west coast was on fire last year. When there is smoke in the sky the flowers don't produce much nectar, the bees will take off searching for food.

But in Mikeys story, to me, it sounds like the bees tried to swarm but left the queen behind, as if they didn't slim her down for flight, so they went back. But if this is the case, they will slim her down, and surely swarm again.

So my question is: Is there a queen in that box? and if there is, be assured that they will attempt a swarm again.
There Is Peace In The Queendom

Offline iddee

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Re: Swarming bee's
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2019, 05:51:47 am »
Abscond or swarm, he will not know until he goes into the box and looks. If he finds queen cells, it's a swarm. If he finds no cells and does find SHB, it's an abscond. Either way, he needs to get into it NOW. They will go again. Being August, and an SHB in the area, my bet goes with abscond.
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
― Shel Silverstein

Offline Jen

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Re: Swarming bee's
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2019, 12:28:13 pm »
What if…. he puts a queen excluder between the bottom board and the hive box to lock the queen in, if in fact there is a queen in there. Plus adds a framed of capped brood with nurse bees. How long does it take for the bees to lose the abscond desire?
There Is Peace In The Queendom

Offline iddee

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Re: Swarming bee's
« Reply #5 on: August 06, 2019, 02:10:13 pm »
Only about 5 days. That's how long it takes the SHB to kill the hive. Then he doesn't have to worry about it any more.
“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
― Shel Silverstein
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