Swarms

It is that time of year when the hives are growing like crazy and swarming is a challenge. After going through all our hives, we've seen swarm cells in only two hives. Those have been split to create additional hives and avoid having the bees swarm.

For those of you that aren't aware, swarming is how the bees propagate the species. When the hive gets too crowded with bees, the hive will create a new queen. The hive creates a queen cup that the queen will lay an egg into. This is an egg just like any other egg but it fe enormous amounts of royal jelly to produce a queen.

They will then quit feeding the old queen and reduce her weight so she can again fly. She hasn't flown since hatching and making her mating flight which could have been as long as a year or two ago. Once the old queen is ready to fly, the old queen and half the hive will leave the hive, or swarm.

Swarm on a tree

Queen cells (peanut shapes) that contain new queens

As a beekeeper, our job is to try and prevent swarming. We have a lot of techniques we can use but sometimes swarming is inevitable.

Swarming is bad for several reasons. First, a swarm needs a home and a lot of times they end up in homes, garages, cars, etc. This could be hazardous to people, and sometimes hazardous to the bees as people will kill the bees to get rid of them. Secondly, as a beekeeper, this is our honey production resources that have left right before the nectar flow. Thus reducing our ability to make honey.

We will try and capture these swarms and put them back in the apiary so that we don't lose this production. This also prevents them from ending up in areas that can ultimately lead to them being killed.

If you see a swarm in the Dadeville/Auburn area, let me know and I'll either come get them or get someone from our club to come get them. If you aren't in the area, look up a local beekeeper club and they will most likely be glad to get them. It is free bees to a beekeeper!!