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My biggest problem is trying to scrounge together enough equipment fast enough to give them all room to make a honey crop. It's getting bad. I've been building more as fast as I can, but I keep filling it with new swarms. What am I gonna do?!?
Same here. I now have only 1 medium super left. I build all my equip, exculding frames. Home Depot didn't have any 1x8 last Friday so I was unable to build any more supers this weekend. I have had 4 cutout calls last week. None have given the go-ahead which maybe a good thing.

James
 
Yep. Very common here for our kind beek elders to pass on a swarm to needy folk.... Even the odd nuc gets a new home for a worthy cause.

Truly for the price of working to capture a Swarm, it can be yours.
 
Just my 2c worth – take it with a pinch of salt - I’m a newbee and still crawling through the mine-field.

We’re going into winter here (South Africa). Two weeks ago I treated (Waxol) two deeps and three nucs and left them on a drum outside my workshop to dry. I planned to put them away for winter and have them ready for spring. Well, a week ago a large swarm moved into one of the nucs. I let them settle for a couple of hours then moved them a short distance near another of my established hives. This newly hived swarm is amazing. By 07h00 in the now chilly mornings they are out foraging en- masse and are coming and going from the nuc in waves all day. The established hive nearby is being out performed ten fold.

Having read this thread and whilst watching them yesterday I wondered about what I have learned so far. It’s a given that one of the causes of swarming is an overcrowding of the parent hive coupled with the instinctive need to perpetuate the species. I understand that due to different genes different queens will have different natural tendencies to swarm and that the one less likely to swarm is the more desirable. However, those two queens will also be different in their output (laying) levels. The more prolific queen is far more desirable but, is more likely to produce a crowded hive and thus a colony that will need to swarm to manage the colony size.

At this stage of my beekeeping adventure I’m definitely going to hang on to this swarm and nurture it. I think the prolific nature of this new queen is desirable - I’ll watch the colony size and try and limit swarming by splitting or adding space. I haven’t looked inside the hive yet (promised myself I’d wait ten days) but from outside appearances I’m expecting “good” things.

Believe it or not yesterday I had lots of scouts checking out the remaining refurbished hives outside my workshop and a swarm moved into a tree near to my new nuc. I’m waiting to see if they also “check in”. Hope so – I’ll keep them also.

Whoops, I’m off topic so far so let me add – for my money I’ll keep any swarm I can get and as a last resort, re-queen if necessary.
 
The second swarm (in little over a week) just signed the lease agreement. They moved into one of the deeps outside my workshop at 12h00, I moved them to the yard (200m away) at 13h00. I've just checked on them now (16h00) and there foraging like mad already. They haven't shown the slightest aggression yet - keepers!!! (queen included).
 
Mark sounds like fun, hopefully they can put enough stores away for the winter. Watch them closely come July and into late August because that is when they will run out of food in Southern Hemisphere. If you have drawn and full honey comb keep it handy (in the freezer) and add when needed or keep feeders on the hives thro winter.

I lost one that was weak going into winter, and it died at Beginning of Feb despite a feeder on top.

Wish we had Waxol here in USA, I remember using it on so many things back in SA. Closest I have seen is Tung Oil , but finish is not the same
 
Discussion starter · #29 ·
This miserable old so and so is going to cast a dampner on Mark's enthusiasm.

He is a Southern Hemisphere member with two swarms at the start of his winter. How would a Northern Hemisphere beekeeper view the arrival of a swarm in Late Summer or Fall ?

In the Northern Hemisphere does the rhyme "A swarm in July .... Let it fly" ring any bells ?

Should Mark be wondering "Why have these bees swarmed at the wrong (?) time of year ?

If the swarms are prime swarms then they will have the 'old' queen. Will they want to raise a new queen ? How is a new queen going to get mated and start to lay in Winter ?

Mark has bee impressed by the vigour of his swarms. Is part of this a desperation to build up before Winter ?

One possible course of action would be to unite the swarms. Let the Q's fight it out. The strong force of foragers can try to build up the stores. Most of the foragers will die during the Winter. The bees that last through the Winter will be the ones that the queen lays now.

.
 
Hi Barbarian, you haven't put a damper on my enthusiasm at all. All of your remarks are valid. This will be my first winter as a beek and I look forward to the learning experiance. The boxes were just going to go into storage for the winter, so no harm done. If these swarms don't make it I will have learned a lot and will have some woodenware to make the splits and meddle in some queen rearing in the spring as planned. They are already both quite large colonies so I'll monitor them and unite as a last resort (another manipulation I haven't tried yet). However, imagine if they do make it (against all the odds). Of course if I was in this for the money (commercial) we wouldn't be having this exchange.
All the best.
 
Discussion starter · #31 ·
Hi Mark,

I always manage to think of things after I have made a post.

In your situation, I would think of 'working' the swarm. Swarms have a strong urge to build comb. I would think of giving a swarm sufficient frames of foundation for it to cover. I would feed 1 to 1 syrup in a slow contact feeder above the feed/escape hole in the inner cover. At a prior to winter time, I would not expect a swarm to survive but for the price of some sugar you will get some nicely drawn frames of comb for future use.

Good luck.

.
 
Hi Barbarian
for the price of some sugar you will get some nicely drawn frames of comb for future use.
- thanks, I hadn't thought of that aspect. A real win, I need drawn comb.
I'm going to go into the first swarms hive on Thursday (day after tomorrow) and that should give me a good indication of whats going on in both (they are a week apart). I'll hold off on the feeding until then. At 07h00 this morning, the swarm I caught yesterday was bringing in about 70% nectar, 30% pollen at an alarming rate.
Anyway, I'll let you know what I find and I'd be interested in what "next steps" you recomend then.
Thanks.
 
Where in SA are you located and just how cold does your winter get? From my limited knowledge of SA I thought that the winters there don't really get too cold. How about winter flowers and the possibility that the hives (former swarms) could remain active? I'm not saying that it would be a pushover, but I'm less pessimistic about the chances for strong hives to make it through the winter..
Only time will tell.
 
Hi Efmesch, our little spot is close (14 kms) to the village of Magaliesburg in Guateng. Daytime temperatures in mid winter are around 14 C (57 F) and at night temperatures can go as low as -12 C (10 F). This period lasts about three months. We dont get any snow but a fair amount of frost mid-winter. This being my first beek winter I've never really paid attention to the winter flowers. Hence my reluctance to feed - I will monitor the new hives and only feed if I have to - otherwise I won't have learned anything. My other hives (nine now) should be fine as they have fairly healthy reserves but here again it's a bit of a learning process.
Barbarian, sorry for hi-jacking your thread.
 
I would call that a "borderline winter". Probably, on good days the bees would go out, at least for cleansing flights and if you have a reasonable stock of honey (6-8 frames minimum) they should have no trouble getting through the winter. (It certainly isn't like what Perry Bee has in Canada or even those members in Indiana, New Jersey and New York.)
Where I live our winter is also aboout 3 months but it's less cold (rarely down to -7 C) and a bit warmer (15-20 C mid-day). My bees don't store honey, but they definitely can collect nectar and pollen from the winter flowers (especially Cruciferae= wild mustards).
Bottom line, I wouldn't think that overwintering a good swarm that sets up house nicely is foredoomed to death.
We'll look forward to your reports in September/October. :grin:
 
Discussion starter · #36 ·
Mark,

Don't think your hi-jacking the thread. Your experiences allow input on the original thread question. Please carry on.

You did not mention any additions (frames of foundation/old comb) when you described moving the swarms to your apiary. If there were voids then you may have to deal with wild comb when you examine tomorrow.

Good luck.
 
OK, so I’ve just been into the hive that the first swarm is in – it’s now been in there for 9 days. When they “signed the lease” these bees decided to opt for a 5 frame nuc rather than one of the two full deeps that the nuc was stacked with. Anyway, they now have almost three fully drawn frames of comb. The centre frame had some eggs but mostly brood (great pattern), a mixture of capped and un-capped. The second was honey, capped and uncapped, eggs in the centre, and some pollen. The third had eggs on one side and some pollen and uncapped honey mixed on the other side. The two outside frames had the beginnings of comb building on them. As I had disturbed them already, I took a gamble and moved them (frames and all) into a full sized brood box. We aren’t into winter proper yet – about 8C (46F) at night and yesterday was a welcome 26C (79F) at noon.

When this swarm moved into the nuc it had only a half hand size bit of drawn comb on the centre frame. The rest of the frames were all fitted with wooden starter strips, no wax. I didn’t give them any brood or stores as I didn’t want to deplete any of my other hive’s winter reserves and I felt I didn’t really need to “anchor” them as they had moved into the hive on their own.

I think this colony will be OK – I’ll check them in a week or so and at the same time check the progress of the second swarm (they moved into a full size deep, but a week after the first). I might have to feed this second swarm but will only do that if its do or die. Both swarms are extremely active foraging.
 
Pray for a few more weeeks of similar weather and things should line up well.
 
Of course the big breeders want you to requeen every swarm. They want to sell queens and don't want you to find better surviving strains of bees. I have not bought a queen in more than 30 years, other than when buying packages or nucs.

30 years, no purchased queens. I will always heed Iddee's advise.
 
Hi. I feel obliged to make a final report on the two swarms that occupied hives I had set out for storage for the winter. Both are doing great and have filled eight out of ten frames each with eggs, brood, pollen and honey. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised - they know what they are doing swarming just as winter is setting in. Having said that I just had a call from a resort down the road asking me to come and remove a swarm from their water slide! - these bees are cutting it a bit fine. I don't know if I want to go and get them but, I also know that I will.
 
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