swarming bees

[weekendwellies]

We have an old guy on the allotments who keeps honeybees. Which is great, they pollinate the flowers, give us honey (not that old guy has let me have any of his, but that is another story) Anyway, on Monday I was down on the plot, when young guy who has a plot next to old guy with the bees, came and said there was a big swarm of bees on the fence by his gooseberries. He called old guy who came to get them.
Now I am no expert, but are you supposed to bash the tree so the bees fall into a box placed underneath?
When you have them in the box are you supposed to leave the box open so they all fly away again?
And when you eventually manage to get them into a box, are you supposed to put them in a garage where they have a gap to fly in and out of, or are you supposed to find/make them a new home outside somewhere.
I know that bees swarm when the hive gets too big, but dont bee keepers keep an eye on that kind of thing and prevent it before it happens?
Also, whilst waiting for old guy to arrive I found out that young guy has been driven off his plot previously by angry swarm of bees, forcing him to run down path tugging off his shirt as he went because they got inside said shirt (hmmm, wish I had been there to witness that one!)
Fortunately my plot is at opposite end of site to where the bees live so we have an understanding, they visit my flowers and leave me alone, and I leave them alone. But I am glad I dont have the hive right next to my plot that is for sure.

[Hans Mum]

not sure about how its prevented i'm on a plot next to bee hives and last year they swarmed more than ever before we just rang the beekeeper who came and sorted them, we sat and watched her and she put a white sheet from the tree they were in to a box and they sort of went in of their own accord then she hosed the tree down to get rid of the scent (I think to stop them going back to the same place). Then she took them straight of to their next home. She also said 11.30am - 1pm was the most likely time for them to swarm and she was right of the several swarms i witnessed all were in that time frame...strange but there must be a reason for it.

[endymion]

Our next door neighbour has bees, they've also got young children. I think the bees might swarm every year, but we're not always at home when it happens. It's an amazing thing though, they make a heck of a noise - like a load of motorbikes. We've never been stung and have never had a problem with them.

[Florence Fennel]

They had a swarm of bees at Wimbledon this week didn't they? I think that was around lunchtime.

[weekendwellies]

funnily enough the Monday swarm was 11:30 ish.....
it must be something to do with the warmth of the midday being a good time to go, and the length of the days enabling them to find a new place before nightfall..... or something like that anyway

[Mrs Dobby]

Bees swarm in order to increase the number of colonies, its their natural way of increasing numbers, generally they will only start makiong queen cells (the precursor to a swarm) once the hive is at a large enough size that it can stand half the bees leaving without running the risk of leaving the existing colony too weak to survive. Once the bees have decided to create queen cells, the existing queen will lay an egg in them and the worker bees will feed the grub with more of the royal jelly than a normal worker or drone gets, then after its grown big enough they will cap the queen cell, at which point the hive is then ready to swarm. Once there has been a couple of days with good enough weather (for them to survive at night without the shelter of a hive) the queen will leave the hive (usually from midday to about 4pm), taking half the bees with her, and they will fly away and settle (usually in a tree) whilst some of the flying bees go in search of a new home. On swarming the bees have filled up wioth supplies before leaving the hive, which means with full bellies they find it difficult to bend far enough to actually sting, so generally although a swarm looks frightening, it is actually quite safe and the bees are usually well behaved, unless they feel threatened, when they will try and defend themselves. Anything moving fast, waving hands around etc is likely to make the bees more agressive as they think you are trying to attack them, so if buzzed its best to smarlty walk away from the bees with hands at your sides, keep going until they stop following you.

Preventing swarms is usually carried out by artificially splitting the hive (commonly refferred to as a shook swarm) when there are queen cells present, creating a new nucleus colony (commonly known as a Nuc), or by removing the queen cells before the bees swarm. The difficulty comes in making sure you dont leave any queen cells behind, a large hive can have up to 80000 bees in it, which means it can be difficult to inspect every part of every frame (when they are covered in bees), and it only takes 1 capped queen cell to be present and the existing queen can swarm at any time.

Once the workers have built a queen cell and the queen has laid the grub you only have 8 days max until the cell is capped and the bees will swarm, which is why the longest you can leave it between inspections is 7 days, any longer and they culd have put up a queen cell and swarmed on you!

Catching a swarm can be difficult, the usual way of doing it is to position a box under where the bees have settled, then to try and shake off, or brush off the majority of the bees into the box. If you have got the queen into the box, then all the bees will naturally follow her into the box, so leaving it on the ground for 1/2 hour after the swarm has gone into the box is a good idea to allow any flying bees to return and find where the colony has gone before you then move the colony to its new home.

Moving a colony can be difficult, the rule of thumb is 3' or 3 miles, once you have a new swarm housed it can be moved immediately to its new location, but if you are limited with the number of hives in any location (such as on an allotment, where we are limited to 6 hives + nucs that are only going to be here for a short while until they are rehomed into other beekeepers hives), then keeping them at home is an option, although if there are pets and children at home, or the risk of folks messing with them, then putting them into a garage (albeit one that has access to the outside for the bees) is a viable option, it may even be that he doesnt have enough hives or is lacking a roof, so keeping them in the garage temporarily may mean he could just use some ply to cap them with for the time being.

Without knowing all the circumstances I honestly cant comment on what hes doing, but these would be my guesses.

HTH

[weekendwellies]

wow, Mrs D, that is a very informative answer, thank you. I will be going to the plot tomorrow, for the first time since I saw them going in and out of the garage, so I will find out whether he has been able to rehome them then. Thank you. I still think it was a bit naughty of him to put them in there though, but maybe thats just me.

[happy gardener]

wow, Mrs D, that is a very informative answer, thank you. I will be going to the plot tomorrow, for the first time since I saw them going in and out of the garage, so I will find out whether he has been able to rehome them then. Thank you. I still think it was a bit naughty of him to put them in there though, but maybe thats just me.

I concure with every thing Mrs D says with a few extra`s . A queen is fertile for three years so they will produce a new queen when she starts to produce less brood. The safest time to be amongst bees is when they are swarming thier sole intent is to find the queen she must be kept at a constant 96 degree`s.
As for knocking them or shaking them into a box/container its the only way

[Guzzik]

Nocking a swarm of bees into a box or shacking them into a box or skep is the way it is done, it doesn't harm the bees in any way not get them all riled up and angry. When a hive swarms, the bees that are to leave guzzle as much honey as they can get into their tummoes then they all wait for the Queen to get ready then they are off. They will "generally" head for the nearest tree, fence or, as happened to me TWICE last year, the little darlings will head for a neighbouring plots Runner bean crop. Trying to get the wee darlings from there into a nuc box or skep was fun.........The second time they did it I had help from my local acossiation and a chap came down and showed me how to shake them into the nuc/box/skep then lift them by the handful and "throw" them at the entrance of the nuc we were using. So, as you can see, this bee the "proper" way too catch a swarm.........Sometimes