It is time to put swarm traps out

thelord

thelord wrote: »

Would it be safe to say that the likelyhood of cataching swarms now is reduced ?

Yes. The peak time is May and June. Swarms can still happen later but they are a lot less frequent. Also a late swarm has less time to build up stores and bee numbers for heat and so has less likelyhood of surviving the winter.

The old saying has some truth in it;

A swarm in May is worth a load of hay,
A swarm in June a silver spoon,
but a swarm in July is not worth a fly...

thelord

Well i have the traps out again. I suspect it may be June till there are any swarms about due to the late start.

brianmc

thelord wrote: »

Well i have the traps out again. I suspect it may be June till there are any swarms about due to the late start.

Artificial swarms done on half of mine in the last week. I'd say around me (North Kildare/SW Dublin) swarming season is well under way.

Time to get my own finger out and stick out a few more boxes. I have one bait hive up.

Just reading back over the thread... is lionelmessy still out there? How did you get on? Did you do the course? Did your swarm make it through?

Effects

thelord wrote: »

Well i have the traps out again. I suspect it may be June till there are any swarms about due to the late start.

Nah, I've had to do swarm control on a few of my hives and I've two friends that have already lost swarms.

thelord

Observed some bees today very intrested in one of my swarm boxes.

Effects

I have a couple of bait boxes up but no major interest yet.

Picked up a swarm in a garden when I was over in London a few weeks ago. Couldn't bring them home though!

victor8600

thelord wrote: »

Observed some bees today very interested in one of my swarm boxes.

Same here. Several bees going in and out of the swarm trap in my back garden at the same time for the last few hours. It could be that they are just picking the last morsels of honey from the old comb, but hopefully they are looking for a home. Exciting stuff

victor8600

My bait nuc got new occupants yesterday. This 5-frame nuc had a single old frame (on the left hand side in the picture), so the bees started drawing comb on the bottom of the crown board. They have build two 10 cm oval patches of comb before I put more frames this morning.

Effects

Nice pictures. I've picked up two swarms so far myself.
One was after a neighbour phoned to say my bees were swarming. Thankfully it was a swarm arriving that she thought was one of mine leaving.

thelord

I am running late this yes it will be this weekend till get my swarm traps out

junospider

One of my hives swarmed on april 20th and today I caught a swarm. Next week will see a lot of swarms.

thelord

two traps out two more in the works. Scouts were sniffing round one of the boxes today fingers crossed.

i71jskz5xu42pb

Opened my own hive this afternoon for a first look.

A few queen cells already drawn and they actually swarmed while I was there, just made it as far as a fence post beside the hive. I was able to locate the queen and pop her back in the hive but artificial swarm is due for sure.

Danzy

Caught a swarm during the week, nuc out for 2 days, bit of comb in it.