swarming
What Does a Caught Swarm Need to Thrive?
I just caught my first swarm by placing a deep hive body on top of a very active swarm on a low brush pile. When I got the deep back to the yard, I installed a frame feeder and a top feeder as well as a pollen patty. I inspected the hive yesterday afternoon, and it is packed out with bees (maybe 5-6 lbs ).
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Why Do My Colonies Keep Swarming?
I have three hives started last year and all three swarmed in the last week. Now, they are swarming again — the same colonies. Why do the same colonies keep swarming every few days?
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Can a Drone be Effective in Locating Swarms?
Could a drone be effective in locating swarms? I assume you are asking about a man-made drone, not a male honey bee. A male honey bee would be useless in that line of work!
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Learn How Bees Can Be Sustainably Managed
The most sustainable manner of keeping bees requires Beeks to learn skills beyond hive inspection, feeding regimens, and pest control. Learning to create splits and raise queens are, without a doubt, the most sustainable manner of reducing costs.
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How Do I Save a Late-Season Swarm?
Deciding how to handle a late swarm can be difficult, even for an experienced beekeeper. Although late swarms have a very low survival rate, they can be helped along with additional resources.
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On a Frame of Emerged and Capped Queen Cells, Will the Workers Destroy the Capped Cells?
On a frame that has emerged queen cells and capped queen cells, is it most likely that the capped cell contents have been killed and of no use in trying to raise a queen in a nuc? Are these cells eventually torn down by the workers?
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Should I Split if I See Queen Cells on Three Frames?
If I have queen cells on three different frames, and I know they are going to swarm. This is a new colony from a nuc. Could I make a split from this situation?
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How Do I Encourage My Bees to Cap the Frames in the Super?
The bees simply bite off a chunk of wax, mix it with their own saliva, chew it into the right consistency, and then build new comb with it somewhere else in the hive. If later in the season they want to use the frames they borrowed from, they will repair the entire thing such that you can barely see what they did.
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Can You Keep a Queen from Leaving with a Swarm?
In the past few years, the number of electronic devices for beekeepers has mushroomed. I’ve frequently been asked to test these new devices, so I have quite a bit of experience with them.
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Will a Newly Installed Nuc Swarm?
The appearance of a single swarm cell doesn’t mean much. Some colonies repeatedly build queen cups and swarm cells only to tear them down later. We don’t know why they do it, but it may just be a case of being prepared.
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