(Artificial) Swarming: 2012

[Jon]

Gav.
re the artificial swarms you maybe have carniolan/swarmiolan genetics in your stock thanks to all the commercial stuff in your area - making control more difficult.
The other thing which occurs to me is the Tom Seeley stuff about nest selection and reaching the point of no return.
I have a bait box on my shed roof and for 5 days now I have had up to 500 scouts casing the joint. they are not my bees as I chucked flour over them and they did not enter any of my hives.
I doubt if a swarm has been hanging in a tree for 5 days so I am guessing that the scouts are coming from a colony which has the intention to swarm but has not gone yet.
I can picture the scenario where a beekeeper does an artificial swarm or collects the swarm from a bush, but nothing at this point will deter them from the cavity they have been checking out so thoroughly.

The only thing I can suggest is to move the part with the queen several miles away or put a queen excluder under the brood box for a week until they settle down.

People locally have had the same thing happen.

[Trog]

Here's a poser for the experts. Do you think/have you observed that ferals who are accustomed to living in buildings (chimneys or under slate roofs) tend to swarm into same rather than being attracted to bait hives, and are managed stocks more attracted to what they know, ie square boxes, even though they might check out alternatives?

[chris]

I'm no expert, but I know that I've had swarms that didn't come from a chimney that chose a chimney for their new home. I also know that I've managed to attract a swarm into a box that I've placed close to a chimney after seeing scouts exploring said chimney.I've also taken ferals in a bait hive when the possibility of tree hives existed. I think they go for what suits their needs.