Honey Bees

[TreeDaddy]

I have my swarm traps out but they haven’t started yet in my area but guys 40 - 50 miles south of me are getting quite a few swarms already

I've got 2 this year!
bill

 

[Bill Loser]

Thanks Coyote!

 

[H20fwler]

Another swarm this morning!

 

[fishin coyote]

I finally got my first confirmed swarm. Looks like they moved into a stack of empty boxes in the bee yard. About every 3rd or 4th bee was brining pollen in. Now I’ll just have to rearrange the stack . Gott love the ones you don’t have to transport.

 

[Bill Loser]

Can you attract swarms? I don't believe I have ever seen one around here, always wanted to get into bee keeping.

 

[fishin coyote]

Bill, the short answer is yes. All it takes is a box with some frames. I use old frames in old deep boxes. Bees tend to move into places bees lived before. If you don’t have any old frames you can use new ones and add a q-tip soaked in lemongrass oil. There’s tons of info out there on catching them.
Hers a couple pictures of some of my swarm traps

 

[SD51555]

Are these found swarms someone else's bees that just wandered off? Or are they reproducing on their own?

 

[fishin coyote]

They can be yours, someone else’s or ferals. Swarming is how they reproduce hives to repopulate areas with bees.
Most beekeepers try to keep they’re own hives from swarming by giving them extra hive space or splitting big hives into smaller hives but bees do what bees want so if they want to swarm it’s almost impossible to stop them.

 

[H20fwler]

Are these found swarms someone else's bees that just wandered off? Or are they reproducing on their own?

I think the two swarms I just found were probably from new young queens out of my hives. They were both within a 100 yards of my bee yard. My other hives were crazy active and still are so the new swarms are a nice bonus catch. I've been making splits all spring.

 

[Fryguy]

Yea I've been splitting too. Bees are booming. I just had to split a hive that was made from a split in early April. Guess I should have got another box on em sooner. Found capped queen cells in it already lol.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Do you requeen when splitting or just let the bees raise their own ?

bill

 

[Fryguy]

I did requeen 2 of the hives but as long as there a good strong colony I'll just let them take care of it. I had a couple hives that were testier than the others and those are the ones I put a different/new race of queen.