The First Swarm of the Year

Yesterday I saw the first swarm of the year. It was an interesting one because I have been speaking with Jim Verhey for a few months prior about a colony of bees that have taken up residency in an owl box in his vineyard. I’m pretty familiar with this sinerio, bees always move into both wine barrels and owl boxes, it's their nature. I have even removed hives of bees that have started colonies in a chest of drawers. Drawers, barrels, and boxes are the perfect space for bees that replicate a hollow tree. Jim and I have been discussing the owl box colony removal and relocation to a conventional Lang. To me, that is the most logical thing to do with these owl box hives, they tend to bee too small a space for sustaining a colony. Which doesn’t mean they won’t hold up in such a small house. It just means they will never really have the space to thrive and tend to throw off a lot of smallish swarms. In such a cramped space You also have to make sure to vent the hive or the colonies will tend to create too much moisture inevitably resulting in chalk brood in the spring. We have decided to hive the colony and give the owls their box back. I advised him to get prepared with his hive bodies, supers, frames, and foundation from Mannlake and a top and bottom from Jim at Feather Farm. It’s a little early in the season to go busting into a hive of bees just yet, but it is better to have your gear on-hand for the right weather. Premature to go tearing into the brood but apparently not to early for the bees to swarm. I think the owl hive swarmed...
Luckily Jim had gotten in touch with me early and I was able to advise him on how to at least keep the colony dry while it was dumping rain. Not sure what those bees were thinking... What colony in their right mind decides to pack it in during a rain storm?  On my cell phone, in the pouring rain while driving ( look who's calling the "right mind" kettle black...). I told  Jim to cover the bees the best he could to keep the water off them. Generally it's not being out of the hive in the cold weather that kills them, it's the moisture. It has been my experience that as long as they have a dry place to cluster they can keep the queen warm for a few days. Jim was able to find a grape picking box that covered the bees nicely. When I arrived it was still raining off and on but sunny, some of the bees were flying – good sign. I removed the opaque white box and there was a small colony of bees clustered on some vineyard clippings, a lot of the bees had dried. These days we are trying our best not to offer bees honey from other colonies but I thought I’d gamble that and give them a little sweet sticky yum-yum from one of the colonies that toppled over in my front yard last week. The bees I robbed the honey from were healthy, they just went for the colossal fall to their final resting place, why not use their honey? I offered the the cold colony a full frame of warm honey, two frames of drawn comb, one of which had a lot of pollen, and follower boards. I only had a super on me so I used that, a converted solid bottom board that had the center cut out for one of those varroa screened adapters, one of Serge’s super stout inner covers, and a telescoping cover. When I left the bees it was nice to see some of the foragers coming home and landing on the top of the hive. I’m encouraged… Last week when my hives fell I thought I would lose them all. They too were totally drenched and looking pretty pathetic but I was able to save one. The other two that died were really small colonies and I sort of knew they were DOA so I didn’t even reassemble. However, the colony that survived have totally rebounded. I offered them a similar comb, honey, pollen, cocktail and in the last week they have all moved up into the super. It was a two queen colony, I wonder if that had something to do with it? I dunno… one thing I’m fairly sure about is the wet swarm in the vineyard that Jim called me about must have been a very early split from the owl box that was only 5 or 10 rows away. My guess is they must have first flown to one of the vines in front of the cluster on the ground first because I saw a few stragglers hanging around the limb area. Herself must have bailed to the ground in the rain and they followed her. The bees were either really gentle or really cold because I didn’t have much trouble transporting some of the bees from the clippings to the top bars. I find it interesting that swarms are so hard wired that as soon as they smell the new comb anywhere near them they start filling towards it single file. This cold wet colony were no different, shortly after I set the frames gently on top of the cluster they started marching into the new hive like little soldiers.
The plan is to revisit the bees when the rain stops and relocate them to a dry location. Probably to the Carnaros apiary because there aren’t any bees out there at the moment and it is more than 3 miles away. We’ll offer them the best possible accommodations with good ventilation and a screened bottom board. Cross our fingers for varroa resistance as the colony grows. We’ll also hive Jim’s owl box bees as soon as the weather warms, and watch them closely as well. I have not discussed with Jim where those owl bees will go on his property or preparing him for having two colonies long term, but we'll get to that...

The source.

This is what I saw upon arrival, kinda looks like a dog-loo for bees.


Under the box of bees...


I shook a few on the top bars and placed the hive on top of the cluster.

They took to it very easily, almost as if they were grateful. I realize this is a complex emotion for a wild animal so I don't expect it, but I felt love in the air.

Look who came out to say hello!



A small cluster on the inner cover.


This is how I left them.

Notice how they were filling the large entry with propolis. I could see a few bees but it appeared the majority had left.

One I took home accidentally.

 


 

 

Comments

[frank yensan]

Dude, you are the bee whisperer... I love following your blog and it is so foreign from my Airstream blog. None the less I get excited every time you post.