Realtime:- To Swarm ot Not to Swarm that is the question?

and it all starts again today!

reports of swarm clumps again, larger this time, than before!!!!

So, I'm going back to home, soon and working from home after lunch.....

not been here in a while, but just to add my two pence's worth, my bees swarmed last weekend, fly into next doors conifer tree, left them for an hour and they were back on the front of the hive, possible due to the queen having clipped wings, so I simply sorted out another hive, then opened up the first and halved the number of frames into each hive, adding more bees to the new hive, swarm cells were split between the two, moved the new hive around 30ft away, those that were on the front I put into the new hive, touch wood all seems ok so far, theres a twist to this story, but I'll put that in another post, rather than hijacking this one

Okay, got back home, and yes another clump in the magnolia tree, larger clumps than yesterday, and it rained, and there are still some on front of hive.

So, I dropped these into a box, and left in place.

Checked on the nuc, today, and there's a very small number of bees in the nuc, less than half a frame, did not see queen, I'll check again when weather is better.

But here's another post, I got called by an allotment person today, a swarm of bees (clump) on the bushes, they watch, and call me, so rushed over, and they'd gone.

and it's possible these have come from my hives at allotments.

see post here for comment if you want.

I do sympathise Andy! I currently have 6 out of 7 colonies undergoing Pagden! One lot decided to go with the Queen regardless, luckily they were retrieved sharpish! It's definitely that time of year!

I find my 3 bait hives to be a really good barometer of any swarming intent in my colonies, all calm at the moment!

I just thank God that I bought all that new kit in the winter sales as I only just had enough!

Good luck! Sounds like you are in for a hectic afternoon.

Jimmys Mum said:

I do sympathise Andy! I currently have 6 out of 7 colonies undergoing Pagden! One lot decided to go with the Queen regardless, luckily they were retrieved sharpish! It's definitely that time of year!

I find my 3 bait hives to be a really good barometer of any swarming intent in my colonies, all calm at the moment!

I just thank God that I bought all that new kit in the winter sales as I only just had enough!

Good luck! Sounds like you are in for a hectic afternoon.

Click to expand...

I've got lots of kit, just cannot read or understand the bees at present!

I wouldn't mind, after all the work of catching and hiving them, they would stay put!

and still confused about the nuc....(see post!)