nematode

and then there were three

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After peeling and chopping a mountain of potatoes my wife dismissed me from kitchen duties so I could grab a mid-morning coffee. I can’t really remember the time it was at the moment of sipping that coffee because it became lost in the whirl that became swarm Sunday.

I was casually staring out the window across the garden at the two hives, only one of which has a laying queen at the moment. This hive has the queen we have now named Grelder. I am not a fan of naming animals that are not truly pets. I named the chickens only as a joke (Roast, Lemon, Szechuan and Rosemary) and never use the names or can ever tell them apart anyway. But, after the artificial swarm adventure we thought she deserved a name and Grelder seemed fitting as GRound ELDER is something we have to deal with a lot here; just when you think it has completely gone it suddenly appears again from an unknown hiding place.

As I stared at the hives and sipped my strong coffee some activity from Grelder’s hive caught my attention. An ever increasing cloud of bees was whirling around the hive and filling the air. Only one thought crossed my mind; “NOOOOOOOOO!”

We ran outside to find ourselves standing on the edge of a cloud of bees. For a moment I thought about the wonder of it all and the fact that through the cloud the zipping straight lines of scout bees directing the swarm could be clearly seen. They were creating a perfect straight ‘beeline’ from the hive to a young horse chestnut tree. Then that thought crept back in; “NOOOOOOOOO!”


the swarm on resting on the tree




it is fun to stand under a bee filled tree and shake

After a few minutes they neatly parked themselves at a lovely height on the tree and I went off to get suited up and find some bits of kit to attempt to catch them. I had never thought I would be catching swarms so early in by beekeeping career so I have to admit that I did the usual amateur thing of grabbing a couple of bee-books and frantically refreshed my memory on how it should be done. As it was a lovely day and they were so handily positioned I decided to go for the old fashioned method of walking them in which is apparently quite unnecessary but amazing to see.


walking the ramp




I watched for ages and still never spotted Grelder


she might be a ninja bee


After getting them into a little wooden box I transferred them into a hive with frames using a method from a different source. It involved quite a bit of space which seemed unnecessary to me but I went with the wisdom of others and shook the swarm into a brood box, excluder, eek, brood box tower and left them to settle themselves in for the evening.


Grelder the queen had only just been put through an artificial swarm exactly a week ago and it seems she could not be easily fooled. So in a burst of extravagance I decided that if she wanted to leave then I would make her leave. With the help of my brother in law I loaded them on to a trailer and carried them off to a bolt hole site on his land. In the pictures he can be seen wearing a camouflage beesuit and white marigold gloves. I kept asking, “where are you now?” Then he would appear standing beside me hidden in the hedge with his gloves giving me the impression of some strange army mime artist.


you can just see him if you look closely




me standing pondering Grelder the witch

I am assuming that Grelder left some lovely queen cells in her old home and a very small skeleton crew of bees. I also assume that, over the coming weeks, I will have to see if the two hives left behind in our cottage apiary will produce laying queens. Then decisions will have to be made, hives will need to be recombined and a queen might have to be killed. And Grelder, if you happen to be reading this blog, it might even be you.



miles from home - is that swarmed enough for you Grelder?

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  1. Jon's Avatar
    That was a fair sized swarm.
    was that the old queen, ie the queenright part of your artificial swarm?
    What was left in the hive, any (many) bees or brood.
    If the colony is determined to swarm they will quickly make queen cells again, sometimes from a 2 day old larva which means thay can have a cell capped on the third day.
  2. nematode's Avatar
    Yep, it was a swarm from the queen right part of the AS split. The split was carried out on Sunday 19th. I went into the queen right part of the split on Thursday the 23rd and saw no queen cells on the brood frame I left in it and the stores frame I left was cleaned out and full of eggs less than 24 hours old. The proper swarm then happened yesterday 26th. I need to now go into the hive left behind after the swarm and check out what is going on in there although I may not be able to do this until Wednesday. I suspect it will be nuc sized if anything. I have made a wee dummy board with an insulated wall so I have something to try and make a ‘nuc’ with. Will leaving this until Wednesday 29th be enough time to go in and break down all but one queen cell?
  3. Jon's Avatar
    You would need to give it a minimum of 6 days from the date of the swarm to be sure they will make no further queen cells other than the one you have chosen to leave. Wednesday will be too soon as the eggs she laid on Sunday morning will be hatching on Wednesday and will be perfect age to make emergency queen cells - ie larvae a few hours old. Emergency queen cells are made from larvae rather than eggs.
  4. nematode's Avatar
    Grelder the witch lives! I went out to my collected swarm hive today and discovered one drawn comb filled with eggs and about four other frames in the process of being built. At home, I looked into the hive left behind after the swarm and found sealed and unsealed queen cells. I broke down all of them apart from two. Two! I really could not find an isolated queen cell as they appeared to have been formed in clusters, and this made it difficult for me (the mere novice) to break down and leave one without it being damaged. This weighed with the fact that this hive was the result of an assisted swarm then a real swarm I reckoned the chances of them throwing a cast was slim due to the low population. So, I am hoping it will be a queen death-match instead.

    The original brood frames with a queen cell from the original artificial swarm (not the real one) are sitting untouched. I calculate that the new queen should be stretching her wings and about to take her nuptial flight any day now. I have the impression from reading different sources that I should completely leave her alone but I have one small problem……two small problems actually; two strips of Apistan (after a heavy infection http://thisteacherslife.wordpress.co...ctor-of-hives/) have reached the end of their treatment period and need to be removed NOW! What do I do?
  5. Jon's Avatar
    Just remove the apistan strips. If you have a colony with a virgin queen the main thing is to avoid tinkering with it between 1.00 pm and 5.00 pm as that is when virgin queens fly. If you have a colony open as a queen is returning she may well get disorientated and fail to reenter the hive.

    The other thing is, if you leave two queen cells you will almost certainly lose another cast swarm. Leave one cell and should it fail to hatch, reunite the colony with another or cadge a queen cell from someone. I had two cadged from me earlier this evening so it is not an unusual occurrence.
    Updated 01-07-2011 at 09:05 AM by Jon
  6. nematode's Avatar
    Don't be cross with me Jon, but I left the two queen cells in the colony left after the real swarm. They were such a small colony and the two cells were nearly attached at the top. I felt that I really did not have the skill to kill one without damaging the other.
    -
    Tonight we went out to listen to the hives as we do most nice evenings (a strange behaviour; I know) and we heard tooting from this hive. Someone has emerged, will there be a fight tonight?
  7. nematode's Avatar
    Just had a wee cast swarm there ***blushes***. Will go and try and catch them now. ***hangs head in shame***

    UPDATE: She went back inside the origianl hive. I think?
    Updated 11-07-2011 at 06:44 PM by nematode
  8. Jon's Avatar
    Invariably happens. I suppose if the two cells are almost joined you could eliminate one by poking a pin in it.
    bee colonies can throw casts to the point of oblivion leaving next to nothing left. A strong colony can be left as a couple of frames of bees.

    I used to leave two cells and I often lost a cast swarm so I stopped. Check out the people who are giving advice. many of those who freely advise do no kind of swarm control at all. All they do is let their bees swarm and then hope to recapture the swarms. ie, 99% of the 'experienced' 'senior' beekeepers.