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Yeah aaah sorry bout that meant hive not swarm…
AFL Grand Final + my team = beer and lack of thought…
So this is normal?
No need to keep my eyes out for a swarm then?
And damn…
Hi Greg, if that tree is nearby & that’s an active hive. If you want to, it would be easy to get them into a box by making a one way bee escape, or what’s commonly called a trap out. It’ll take quite a few weeks, but you could certainly finish up with a box of bees. Especially if that hole is easy to reach. Congrats on the Hawks:)
And here I was thinking you were a good fella Jeff…
This hive has been in the tree for 20 or so years and are part f the family, they are very respectful of us as we are of them, we have a mutual understanding.
I’d like to be able to use these to start a colony however would rather trap a swarm from this local hive.I’m trying to learn their ways so that when they swarm, as they do most years, I’m ready. I will need advice though.
Any tell tale signs I should look for when I’m unable to peer inside the hive?
I had another hive closer to the ground but I don’t think they made it through winter.
Collingwood forever!!!
Sorry Greg, Sadly I misinterpreted your post, I was thinking your team won. About the bees: you could trap out enough bees to start a hive, if you had access to a frame of brood & some extra frames of drawn comb or foundation. You’d be trapping out all the older bees, leaving the younger bees in the tree. That way you’d get a hive going, prevent the tree hive from swarming at the same time. I did something very similar to that yesterday with some hives to make 2 new colonies for customers chasing bees. I put the new hives in place of the old hive & put the old hives entrance facing another way so that all the field bees will go into the new hive. The new hives will make queens with the frames of brood I put in.
I go for the Lions & any team that’s playing against Collingwood.
I have been a fan since childhood. I worked at Collingwood for my Saturday job in my younger chef-ing years. I often made the “breakfast” for the boys.
But I also worked at Essendon, Carlton and once at Footscray
I’ve seen many a tree (or a hive) that is covered on the outside with bees when the weather is hot or the hive is starting to really boom. You have almost none on the outside. That doesn’t mean they are or are not about to swarm. But it’s just normal.
HELP! Beginner asking for kind reply. I have no idea how to add my photo but can someone please tell me if my bees are going to swarm??? A few days ago my bees made a bridge of bees from the entrance to the under side of entrance. Today they is a huge beard looking cluster of them hanging off the entrance. There is a storm coming just after a hot day…is this just them all trying to get in or are they planing a swarm?
I checked the brood box about 2-3 weeks ago and there was no queen cells. And this 3 month old hive (that started with a 4 frame nuc and queen) were only just filling the outer frames of the brood box. That same day I added the new flow frames and super box to the new hive. Only a week ago they started to enter. This week it is full of girls working hard at it the flow frames.
Questions… What are the doing?
.DO I really need to check brood box weekly? I hate disturbing them. So I’ve been looking every 3 weeks.
I live in SE QLD AUST.
@Gekoski In swarm season you really need to be checking weekly from egg to capped Queen cell is 9 days.
They will swarm on a good day as soon as the QC is occupied. the nurse bees will take care of the new queens.
If you want to catch or transfer the swarm before it happens you need to do and artificial split
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So effectively from what I’m reading is that the only way to tell if a colony is about to swarm is to open the hive? I’m surprised that no behavioral patterns have been observed outside the hive to suggest the makings of a swarm… Bees sure know how to keep a secret!
So how do you know when it’s swarm season?
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@Gekoski Hi Amelia, are those bits of unpainted wood entrance closers? I’d be removing them. Do you have a recess in your lid? If that is full of bees doing nothing, that’s a sign of the bees preparing to swarm. The only way to tell for sure is remove the honey super & check the brood for queen cells. I’m currently getting a call every day about swarms. It IS spring & that’s what bees do in the spring. I noticed yesterday that one of my hives has swarmed. It would have been a beauty.
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Thank you Villa. When you check your frames, do you check each frame and leave them out, or do you pull out one at a time , check, slide back in and pull out the next one, and repeat.?
Yes they are entrance closers. Thanks for reminding me Jeff to remove them. Ahhh your phone must be hot with all the calls.
I’ll try get you out this way, thank you.