Swarms | Beekeeping in Richmond, Virginia

A Swarm Here, A Swarm There, A Swarm Everywhere!

A Mid-sized Swarm of Bees on a Branch in my Backyard

Things have definitely kicked into 3rd gear in Richmond, Virginia. I had offered to show Greg, a fellow that lives to the south of me across the James River, some of my hives to demonstrate to him that beekeeping was not as dangerous as some might think. On my way to meet Greg, I get a call from a nice lady in the West End – ‘There are a nest of honey bees in a bush in my front yard. Can you do something about them?’ Of course I could! This was great news (although you can’t be sure on swarm calls if you really have honey bees, her husband seemed to be sure that they were honey bees, so I was excited.) I took her name and address and advised I would touch base in about an hour. Removing swarms of honey bees in Richmond, Virginia gives me more pleasure then just about anything!

I hooked up with Greg and began to give him a tour of my home apiary (or Nuc yard.) As we moved into the yard (which is all Nuc’s with one larger hive (Larry) that I stole a queen from a few weeks ago), I answered some of his questions about bees and beekeeping. In the process, ‘swarms‘ came up and I explained why they happened and mentioned, off hand, that I had never seen one in my backyard. Greg then said, ‘do you mean something like that?’ as he pointed to a huge pile of bees in a nearby cryptomeria! ‘Yes! Exactly like that’, I exclaimed as I ran to get a box and hived the first swarm of the day and season (for me). I think this swarm had to come from Larry, which is a lesson for me. I took the old queen from Larry two weeks ago, along with a couple of other frames with queen cells on them. I even shook some nurse bees out of that daggone hive. Since then, a queen (or more then one) should have emerged, gotten her legs under her and even made a mating flight or three. I honestly cannot figure out they could have swarmed today. If they had swarmed a week ago, I would have figured that they swarmed with a virgin. But today? Weird. Unfortunately, I did not have time to check them, so I may never really know.

The Nuc’s were all doing well, although I did discover that Nuc D was trying to swarm. It was really a learning lesson for me, as I shook too many nurse bees in with that queen (from the Westover hive). I had actually taken a frame of brood and bees from them to bolster Nuc E a week ago, but it apparently didn’t make a difference. I took the old queen and dropped her in a new Nuc and left Nuc D to make another new queen on their own (this really made them mad, by the way…) This time, I made sure to put a bit less brood and nurse bees with her, to reduce the crowding.

Open Hive with Newly Caught Swarm — West End Bees Find a New Home

Finally, I packed up my gear and headed out to get the West End swarm. This was definitely going to be new genetics for my yards and I was excited about getting (yet another) swarm. My experiences with swarms last year have taught me that no bee builds up like a bee from a swarm. When we arrived, I immediately noticed the bees in an azalea bush. A tremendous-sized swarm, to be sure. It had to be the size of a couple of footballs! The location was a bit tricky, but Linda and Gary (the nice folks who called about the swarm) said that I could cut the branches if I wanted. Fortunately, I was able to shake the swarm into the hive and pull it out safely. I did end up cutting one branch, only because the bees kept trying to congregate on the branch (even though I could see the bees fanning at my box and steadily entering the hive – which meant to me that the queen was onboard!)

Normally, I would have left the box there and come back after dark to get all of the bees (when all of the bees, including the scouts, should have returned to my new box with the queen). But, this was a 40 minute drive from my house, so we were talking about a lot of driving. In the end, I let them collect bees for another 20 minutes or so and then taped them up, returning them to my yard. I immediately put feed on them (and my other swarm), as my swarms of 2010 all greedily took up sugar water while they built out 2 deeps of frames. This is one of the few times that I really think it is important to feed your bees. Swarms are wax building machines. Feed those machines to keep them running and they will draw out comb like no one’s business.

Although this was a banner day for swarms (and two new Nucs), I must say that there are a couple of hives in Charles City that I have to wonder about. Have they swarmed? Who knows. I will know more this weekend.

Swarm Management In July

As per the last post, it appears that the Geronimo hive either already swarmed or was preparing to swarm at the end of July. After making that post, I did a lot of online research and found that it is actually quite natural for bees to cast a swarm at this time, even though the odds of survival are low. It is very much as I wondered in the last post, ‘we will throw one simply because we can, and if they make it, we have performed our role in the grand scheme of Darwinism. If it does not make it, we are still strong enough to go into Winter with a good store and continue on next year, possibly even swarming again in the Spring.’

A chart of average/typical hive population actually shows this situation by having a brief population increase going into July/August and then a bit of a drop thereafter. There are a lot of interesting things to consider with this theory. To begin with, this could be considered a form of Varroa mite control. In a swarm condition, you might have 1 to 4 weeks without a single egg being laid. The mite breeds and reproduces in the egg cells, so a lack of said cells (containing fresh eggs or larva) means there is no place to reproduce. This is what the experts call ‘interrupting the mite cycle’. Since July and August are big times for mite increase, it is the perfect time to cast a swarm (probably a small one) and set your mites back just before you have to amp up to go into Winter. The overall theme of my thoughts here is that this type of behavior might be a type of ‘resistant’ gene behavior. It is not illogical to theorize that those bees who were most prone to swarm, when the Varroa mite first appeared on the scene, were the ones to make it through that devastating time. They managed mites by ‘breaking the cycle’ automatically.

You also have to wonder if these bees are not simply prone to swarming. As per my posts this past Spring, when I discovered that I did not have a marked queen, I had not really found that marked queen since July of last year. It was probable then (and even more probable now that I have seen this swarm activity in action) that they cast a swarm last July too. Perhaps these bees simply are prone to do this? In such a dire time (I have hardly had two inches of rain in both June and July, here in central Virginia – plus, June was the hottest June on record and we broke several ‘daily’ temperature records in July), why would bees swarm unless it was simply something they were going to do regardless? Do these bees ‘re-queen‘ themselves automatically?

Add these thoughts to the discovery over the weekend that the Albo Hive was not showing any inclination to swarm (although I will check them again in 10 days or so). They also had very strong stores (without any feeding whatsoever). Why were they choosing not to swarm (a logical decision in my mind, but still a question to ponder in light of Geronimo’s hell bent behavior to the opposite effect!) The real question was ‘what is different, outside of genetics’?

The primary difference is location. The Albo Hive was moved in late June or early July. Did this upset the balance of things? I am fairly certain that they also swarmed last Fall (although maybe it was later, so I have that to look forward to in the next 4 to 6 weeks.) The move could be it, but I am more inclined to believe that it was accidental swarm management on my part, while the hive was at the Wilton apiary. To begin with, I stole a frame of brood & honey from the Albo Hive in early April to catch my first swarm (which became the Westover Hive, and also the later split, the William Byrd Hive – I would call that a good investment). I took another frame from them for my first cut-out (a horrible investment for bees, but pretty good for lessons learned with the Southside Hive) and three more frames from them to do my late June split for the new queens (the jury is still out on whether this was a good investment or not – created the Bob Hive). Effectively, the Albo Hive lost a quarter of their brood frames (5 out of 20 frames in two deeps). When I looked into them this past weekend, they still had three frames to finish drawing out (although, to be fair, they were already storing resources in all frames – they simply were not fully drawn out.) Was this a swarm management tool? Only time will tell, but perhaps creating a late-June Nuc from a hive is a good way to do a bit of Fall swarm management.

At any rate, I have definitely learned one thing that I am taking to the bank (all previous comments are only theories at this time). You should go into your established hives in mid-July and maybe late-July/early-August (in central Virginia) for full inspections, regardless of how brutal the weather is. I did not do this last year and, it would seem, the bees were able to swarm/supercede, raise a new queen and go on with production without me even noticing – until the following Spring! I will be a bit more watchful in the future.

Chesterfield Swarm!

Yesterday, around 6:30 PM, I received a call of a swarm of bees (thousands of them everywhere) in a nearby tree. My first question was ‘how long have they been there?’ The nice lady said they arrived on Thursday and had stayed through to Saturday. I am having a hard time picturing how a hive would cast a swarm now. It is miserably dry and we are in a dearth. Maybe someone cut down their tree? At any rate, according to the lady, they were on a branch about 10′ off of the ground! This sounded like a good situation. If they were 10′ off the ground, I could easily get them with my 8′ step-ladder. I packed my gear and headed over!

The swarm turned out to be more like 12′ high, which created a bit of an issue. In addition, instead of being massed at the end, they were spread over several small Pine limbs, about 2′ wide. It was a bunch of bees, but they were all massed in the needles. I had taken a frame of brood from the Albo hive (I am going to have to throw a feeder on that hive after all, as I have taken 5 frames from them in the last few days) and placed it into the hive as an anchor. I took a big box and held it under the limb while I shook very hard. A bunch of bees flopped into the box, but a bunch also went into the air. I came down the ladder and poured the bunch in the box into my hive and stepped back.

Several bees on the ground and around the hive began to enter, but when I looked back up into the tree, I could immediately see a small ball forming again. It gained mass quickly, so I was pretty sure that it was the queen. It was probably between the size of a baseball and a softball. I went back up the ladder and, this time, just snipped that section off, carrying it back down the ladder and holding it in the hive while I gave a shake.

More bees started coming into the hive at this point, so I stepped back and watched for 10 minutes or so. A very small clump was trying to form on the tree again, but it was meager. Most of the bees in the air seemed unsure what to do. I looked to the ground and saw a bunch going into the hive this time. I was pretty sure that I had the grand, old lady, so I closed everything down and left.

Around dark, I came back to a full box of bees and started yet another hive on the property (I now have more then I want in one place – and definitely more ‘single deep’ hives then I wanted to feed through the dry Summer. Regardless, it is great fun and a learning experience.

The hive was on Apple Orchard road, so I think I will call this the Apple Orchard hive. I checked her this morning and gave them some feed, which they took to quickly. Robbing immediately started, so I dropped an entrance reducer on (I need to build some more robber screens, it would seem). These bees seemed to have enough to fend the buggers off and setup guard posts very much like the Berkeley Hive does.

It will be very interesting to see if these bees build up as fast as the Westover Hive did. I really do not know how they could build up but so quickly, given the fact that we are in a real dry spell. I will keep my syrup on them and see if they can get on a roll like my first swarm.

In closing, robbing continues to be a problem in the yard. The weaker hives (by that, I really mean any hive that has not filled up 7 frames in the bottom Deep yet) seem to draw the other bees in. I have seen good results with the robber screens, so I hope to get one on the Apple Orchard hive shortly.

My First Honey Bee Swarm in Charles City, Virginia!

Since before I picked up my first two hives, I have been dreaming about the day that I would find and collect a swarm of bees somewhere in the Richmond, Virginia area. In all honesty, I figured it would most likely be down in Charles City, where I grew up, as a lot of those folks know that I am keeping bees and looking for swarms. Regardless, I figured that it was a slim chance at the moment, as the word is only starting to spread.

So, when I received a call at 5:45 PM this afternoon about a ‘swarm of bees’, I was elated. I cannot remember being so excited (well, I was more excited a few months ago when I found out that my wife was pregnant – but outside of that, nothing comes to mind.) I ran into the house to check my notes. Despite all of the reading and research that I had done, my mind went empty when my wife said ‘swarm’ and I couldn’t remember the first thing that I needed to do! Fortunately, I have been keeping notes in this blog and was able to get my ducks in a row and strike out for Charles City (the swarm was actually located at a plantation nearby, called Westover Plantation – a grand, old home on the James River where some good friends of my parents live.)

So, here we are, headed out to Charles City, about 15 minutes from the house, when my wife casually mentions that Mushi (one of the owners of the home) had called another beekeeper before me, but just left a message. This was a real blow. Was that other guy (or gal) already out there getting those bees?! I had a hard time not putting the pedal to the medal at this point.Fortunately, when I arrived there was no other beekeeper in sight, so it was time to go into action!

Now, back to the swarm. When my wife relayed the message to me, she mentioned something about a ‘swarm of bees on the ground.’ I didn’t question her, but figured that she (or the initiator of the message) had gotten it wrong. Bees swarm on branches or some other obstacle they can hang on. They do not swarm ‘on the ground’. Per usual, the bees proved me wrong once again. Here was a pile of bees, smack dab on the ground at the base of a tremendous tree (perhaps 200 feet high.) Way up in the tree (well, about 50′ up), you could see a hole with bees going to and fro. But, here on the ground was a mass of bees (and hopefully a queen!) What in the world was I to do now? I had tons of notes, but not one of them mentioned ‘how to get them on the ground.’ In all cases, you were getting them off of an object, typically a tree. Life is never easy…

After thinking for a second, I decided to call Tom Fifer, my bee expert (well, he’s the expert that I bug with all of my crazy questions.) As fate would have it, he was out! On a whim, I mentioned my delimma to Mrs. Fifer and, much to my glee, she knew of a similar situation that Tom had and the solution! Put an empty hive with a couple of frames of honey on the ground near them and they will march right in! I had brought only one frame, partially full of honey (I do not have the resources that Tom has yet). There was nothing to be done but give it a go.

I set up the Deep right by the swarm (a hair from the edge of it) and dropped my frame of honey a little to the left of center. In seconds (and I mean seconds), a couple of bees went in and then the whole band started moving in. First in four’s and five’s, then by the droves. As I watched, you could see a few of them mill about on the landing deck and fan to send the sent to the rest. As a mass, the whole thing started moving towards the hive. It was truly amazing. An event of nature that few folks see, I am sure. I will never forget it.

At this point, I had an engagement with my wife at a friend’s house, so we skedaddled, with the intent of returning after dark to get my new hive of bees. You’d think I would learn. When we returned, around 9:30 PM, two-thirds or more of the bees were in the hive. But, a good mass of them was still outside of the hive, on the ground nearby! My bee luck never fails. I have no idea what to do now, but will go back out tomorrow morning and hope that they have gone back in by then. If they have not, I might take an empty deep and place it on top of them, with the deep of frames placed on top of that. I considered trying to scoop them up when I found them after dark, but decided that I would try to let nature take its course.

Why are there two sets of bees? If the queen is in the hive, the other bees should have joined her! If the queen is outside, why didn’t all of the bees in the hive go back out to her? These little critters continue to throw me curve balls.

The worst thing about this is that it will get down into the low 40’s tonight. I hope the ones outside can survive.