Jimmys Mum
House Bee
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2012
- Messages
- 479
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Berkshire
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 13
Hi all,
My 2 bait hives both in my apiary, have proved to be a useful tool to warn me of imminent swarm preparations. One of my hives swarmed yesterday and i caught the swarm clustering and hived it elsewhere - so it never actually made it to the bait box. I'm as sure as I can be that I only missed 1 queen cell so would be surprised to see a further cast swarm emerge.
But......there is still a lot of activity (20-30 bees each) still hanging around the bait hives today. I know they came from the swarmed hive as I did the flour dusting trick and watched 'ghost bees' returning to the now depleted hive!
My question is, following a swarm, do the scout bees immediately stop scouting for a new pad or does it take a day or two for the message to filter through!
Or......can I expect more excitement with my skep and stepladder????
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.
My 2 bait hives both in my apiary, have proved to be a useful tool to warn me of imminent swarm preparations. One of my hives swarmed yesterday and i caught the swarm clustering and hived it elsewhere - so it never actually made it to the bait box. I'm as sure as I can be that I only missed 1 queen cell so would be surprised to see a further cast swarm emerge.
But......there is still a lot of activity (20-30 bees each) still hanging around the bait hives today. I know they came from the swarmed hive as I did the flour dusting trick and watched 'ghost bees' returning to the now depleted hive!
My question is, following a swarm, do the scout bees immediately stop scouting for a new pad or does it take a day or two for the message to filter through!
Or......can I expect more excitement with my skep and stepladder????
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.