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Nov 2019
8:55am, 21 Nov 2019
33,319 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Lol at buzzin in here. Didn't realise they needed inspecting weekly. We can get people to look after horses and pigs if we're away for a week or two, but think it might be a bit much getting someone to inspect our bees for us.
What are you checking for with a weekly inspection? And what is clipping the queen?
How do you "catch" a swarm? And how does the "nucleus" of bees work? Fascinating stuff!  G
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Nov 2019
9:14am, 21 Nov 2019
1,108 posts
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Trin
HappyG, we don't inspect every week, or every month, other than just watching from the outside. You can tell a lot about what's going on in the hive from just watching the bees going in and coming out. It's fascinating.
Some beeks clip the queen's wing to stop her flying too far and therefore returning to her own hive once mated (they mate in flight). We would never do that, it's messing with nature and cruel.
As for catching a swarm, Google videos of swarm catching. I've caught a few and it's a great experience, and can vary greatly depending on where they are. The main point is that you have to catch the colony with the queen because the workers will stay with her
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Nov 2019
9:30am, 21 Nov 2019
1,038 posts
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Dochart
HG - inspections are usually carried out to check: there is a laying queen present, the bees have enough stores (honey and pollen) to last until the next inspection, the colony has enough room for anticipated expansion, to look for signs of disease, to check if the colony is preparing to swarm. A colony can go from no signs to swarming in 10 days, so weekly inspections work for most people, if they want to avoid losing a swarm.
A nucleus, or nuc, is just a small (3-5 frame) colony sold by many of the commercial suppliers in the UK. In the course of a year a nuc should build up to a full size colony.
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Nov 2019
9:48am, 21 Nov 2019
33,323 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Swarm catching sounds amazing. I'll def look for that! Thanks Trin.
Dochart, what makes them swarm? Not enough food? Not enough space? And how quickly does a nucleus grow into a full colony (and from how many bees to how many?) Fascinoodling! G
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Nov 2019
10:05am, 21 Nov 2019
20,639 posts
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Meglet
They swarm when there’s a new queen I think. You can’t have two queens in a colony so the old one leaves and takes some of the bees with her. She’s looking for a new home.
So you can pre-empt swarming by looking for when queen cells are being nurtured, and artificially moving part with the queen to a new hive. Hopefully I’ve got that right.
They often swarm around midsummer. The bees won’t go far from the queen so if you get the queen and a fair few bees into a container (hive/basket) the rest will follow. We did this with the ones in next door’s compost bin. They’d made themselves at home and started making honey. We dumped the queen and most of the bees into a hive and the rest just walked in! (I say we, I was watching from a distance)
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Nov 2019
10:15am, 21 Nov 2019
1,039 posts
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Dochart
Space is definitely one issue, HG, but you have to think of a colony of bees almost as a single organism and swarming is their way of reproducing, so the urge is quite strong! I've had colonies swarm as early as April and as late as September here in the UK.
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Nov 2019
10:18am, 21 Nov 2019
1,040 posts
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Dochart
If there's enough forage, then a nucleus with a good young queen will fill a brood box pretty quickly. If you started with a nuc early in the season you may even get a small crop in the first year.
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Nov 2019
10:22am, 21 Nov 2019
1,041 posts
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Dochart
And Meglet is quite right, the usual method of swarm control is to separate the flying bees and the old queen from the brood (eggs, larvae and pupae) and young bees.
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Nov 2019
10:50am, 21 Nov 2019
4,825 posts
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Sweetie
oooh, other beekeeping fetchies!
We have 6 hives on the go at the moment but it is very much my OH's domain (I just enjoy the honey!), he's a longstanding fetchie but I don't think he's ever posted on the forums, I shall give him a nudge in this direction.....
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Nov 2019
10:53am, 21 Nov 2019
33,325 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Excellent - bees are bringing in a new (to forums) Fetchie. Love it! G
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