5th Swarm and I'm not sure why

Swarms & Bee Catching
1

Hi - I had 8 hives going into winter - Lost 3 hives over the strange winter we had in NJ.
Did my mite check on all 5 hives - had an average count of 4 mites per hive. 02/29/2020 I did a oxcylic Acid treatment on all hives.
3/9/20- Hive inspection / mite check - sugar roll - found 1 mites in one hive, other 4 hive no mites.
03/21/2020 Dewinterized - cleaned bottom boards and inspected.
04/05/202 Inspected, removed top feeders all hives, bee’s busy collecting pollen like crazy, mostly tree pollen.
Today is 4/9/2020 and now I have 10 hives…in the last 3 days I have had 5 swarms. Caught them all, hence my 10 hives. I can’t figure out why so many swarms? Not sure if they are all from my hives.
On 4/6/20 I had 2 swarms from hives that I inspected, all hives have plenty of food, pollen / honey from winter.
Any advice would be helpful. As of now I’m out of boxes, covers, lids and frames…

Thanks!!!

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You are experiencing typical Spring bee behavior. You need to do regular brood checks & take swarm prevention measures, which means you probably need more boxes :slight_smile:

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I agree with @JeffH and the main thing to do is not have your own hives swarm by doing preemptive splits of your hives. But to do that you will need more hives.
As for swarm collecting it can be a problem with the risk of issues like Varroa but if you collect wild swarms I would isolate then away from you apiary till you know there is no issues with them.
In my area a hive of bees is a very saleable item if you have enough of your own.
Cheers

4

Thank you Jeff & Peter - I’m busy doing brood checks and building / painting more boxes as well as putting more frames together.

Hope you and your Family are staying safe!

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