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Thread: Will your bees attempt to swarm in May

  1. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    So that's likely to be early swarming and run out of food
    Certainly will need watching closely
    Good warning many would be wise to heed.

    Moved a load of nucs onto OSR near Edinburgh yesterday and a few were dangerously light. Checked a further group today and ditto.....even to the point of one having no food left at all and being all slow. Tomorrow all nucs will have to be fed.

    Many were to be prepared for customers this week, and should probably now be delayed until the situation is stabilised.

    With the next week remaining cool, and the last week of the month seemingly going to be really cold with northerlies, relying on early flows to feed the bees is not going to be safe.

    PITA for most....this cold start will likely cost me about 20K of feed bill.........bummer.

    At least the spectre of any really early swarms is off the list of worries.

  2. #22
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    seeing the same thing with mine. About 4-5 litres of syrup will do them the world of good at this stage.

  3. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by Calluna4u View Post
    Realise this is WAY too long............
    Not at all C4U - its all interesting, and informative (corrects some of my misconceptions - I still have many more to deal with though). What comes across is a combination of planning and flexibility guided by knowledge and experience. Also helps us smaller scale keepers appreciate the organisation, scale and decision making involved at your level with the complications that bees and the weather throw our way. By way of analogy - you have a D-day landing every year for the heather - for me it feels like the charge of the light brigade every weekend.

  4. #24

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    lol.....feels more like the Keystone Cops here a lot of the time! If you think you are in control then for sure you are missing something.

    Sometimes decisions come down to daft things like.....What have we got left on the truck?

    Run out of splitting boards? You can find a hive top feeder pressed into service as a temporary crown board in the wooden hives, and crown boards as floors. Just keep enough notes to remember to bring enough of the right stuff next time.

    There are daily events that 'bring forth intemperate language'.................any aura of calm and control is entirely accidental.
    Last edited by Calluna4u; 18-04-2016 at 08:55 AM. Reason: add more

  5. #25

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    A couple of weeks ago - when we had that good spell I opened up a couple of colonies on a sheltered site, peeked under the crown board of some others and hefted. All colonies have wintered really well with lots of bees; there were even two that looked ready for a super or a second brood box which I have never seen so early. But, they were all light on stores with fondant gone from some. I thought I was being overly conservative putting on more fondant, and some crystallised super frames under the brood nest but I simply thought this would be helpful to reduce stress on the colonies. These bees were very well feed last autumn, some boosted by the heather, and ivy that went on and on. The good autumn and mild winter has no doubt helped keep numbers up but this has used up stores more than I have seen before. The weather will slow them down a bit but I am confident mine will be making preparations to swarm in May.

  6. #26

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    [QUOTE=Calluna4u;35514]lol.....feels more like the Keystone Cops here a lot of the time!
    [QUOTE]
    Oh, that makes me feel a bit better.

  7. #27
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    Thought I'd better sneak a look tonight after previous discussions, not sure how they managed it but 4 are full off bees and seem to have brood on 7 out of 11 frames 3 others that I had thought looked a little quieter had bees on all frames and more like 4 out 11 with sealed brood,might be a little previous but 5 of them got a QE and a super, snelgrove boards might be on before May.
    If the weather stays for tomorrow the 5 hives and 2 nucs in the back garden will be checked tomorrow, reasons to be cheerful
    4 off similar to above with 1 just 5 frames of bees an 2 of brood which had thought must be a goner
    Re housed a nuc with a frame feeder and found the other empty, had foolishly left it between 2 full hives probably deserted for a better option next door
    Last edited by nemphlar; 20-04-2016 at 08:13 PM. Reason: Update

  8. #28
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    My originally prediction that my colonies might not be swarming in May is still looking accurate after finding three DLQ's in the last couple of days.


  9. #29
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    DLQ's apart it, it does appear from C4's results that those with viable queens are going quite well. Although it's been pretty miserable we haven't seen the extremes of previous years

  10. #30

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    Swarming in May? Oh, yes. Without a shadow of a doubt. Yesterday I suddenly realised I was too hot in sandals and a jumper. The air was loud with bees and I'd seen the first signs of drone cappings on the varroa boards the day before. I had time to go through 6 out of 7 brood boxes. No DLQs, a big range of nest sizes, several with drone brood. Just two on 5 or more frames of brood, and one of those had drones flying. A 2013 queen and she's always been a swarmy little cat. I've had less swarmy daughters & grand-daughters from her, though, & her bees draw lovely comb, so I've kept her. This time her colony overwintered with a full box of stores, & they're very frugal, so they've got resources to play with, & they're using them to play their usual game. I've put an empty super over their heads, but they'll be drawing queen cells within a month, for almost certain. Game on!

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