Another Swarm

A swarm in May is worth a load of hay
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon
A swarm in July isn't worth a fly
A swarm in August is worth a pint of sawdust
A swarm in September is something to remember
A swarm in October is rarely seen when sober
- Traditional Rhyme

Well I am certainly seeing somthing to remember this September - swarms a plenty!
Today I found a second small swarm hanging in a tree in my garden.

I had noticed a lot of buzzing around the garden bench, and looked up to see a swarm.

It must have been there a while before I noticed it, as when I shook the bees into a skep, I found that they had already started building comb on the branch of the tree and had covered a leaf in wax comb.

This time, after shaking the bees into a skep, I placed topbars over the top of the skep, and wrapped a piece of thick wire around from the bottom of the skep over the top bars to hold them in place, and left the skep under the tree until it began to get dark and all the bees were inside.

Then I wrapped it up in a sheet and put it in the shed. My plan is to move the skep to where the hive is going to go tomorrow, and leave the skep and bees there for a while. Once they have started to build comb on the topbars, they can be moved to a topbar nucleus hive, or a full size topbar hive.

27th September - I attempted to transfer the bees to a topbar nucleus hive, but they were reluctant to leave the skep. About half the bees were transferred, and I carefully placed the queen in when I spotted her. I left a small gap between a couple of topbars and put an inverted large yoghurt pot full of syrup on top, with small holes punctured in the lid to allow syrup to slowly drip out for the bees to collect. I couldn't then put the roof on the topbar hive, so I placed the skep over the yoghurt pot on top of the topbars, which also served the function of encouraging the rest of the bees to move down into the hive. With a little adjustment, a hole cut into the roof of the hive, and a shelter built around the hive, I now have a rustic combination skep/topbar hive which I'm quite pleased with.

A Late Swarm

It seems I was wrong about the reason for the number of drones outside my hive a few days ago - they weren't being kicked out after all, but were more likely there for another purpose. Drones can often be seen around a hive when the Queen is about to swarm. A couple of days after seeing all the drones I looked through the obbservation window and noticed some swarm cells had been built. These are long peanut shaped queen cells which hang from the bottom of the comb. There are three types of queen cells: swarm cells, supercedure cells and emergency cells. Supercedure cells are generally built in the middle of the comb rather than at the bottom, and are for when the bees intend to replace their queen. Emergency cells are generally ordinary worker cells which have been built up into queen cells in an emergency situation where the queen has been killed or injured. Very young worker larvae can then be fed up with royal jelly and developed into queens.

I was rather concerned about this as it is very late in the season for swarming. I thought that the swarm cells had just been built, as I hadn't noticed them before, but on closer inspection I noticed that some were capped and two had already hatched out. As the weather was cold and wet I didn't want to do a full inspection of the hive, but lifted about 4 combs at the back of the hive to inspect. I saw a queen on the innermost comb I inspected, but am not sure if she was my original queen or a new virgin queen. I was also quite alarmed to see that there was hardly any honey in any of the combs, some of which had been full of honey on my last inspection. Lots of bees had their heads inside cells, as if looking for food and I was worried that the bees were starving. Bees were also clustered together all at the top of combs. I wondered then if the colony was starving and that the queen making was emergency behaviour. The bees had used up all of the sugar syrup/herbal tea mix I had put in a few days earlier, so I gave them some more. There also appeared to be less bees in the hive, but I would be expecting them to be reducing in numbers for the winter now. I did wonder though, whether my old queen has already swarmed, taking half the colony and much of the honey with her.
When I got up this morning and went to look at the hive, I happened to look up into a tree overhanging the apiary, and hanging from it in a high branch, was a swarm of bees!

It looked like quite a small swarm, and may well have been a cast. I called my man for help, got him to don a beesuit and together, armed with ladder, seceteurs and a cardboard box, we went to collect the swarm. We managed to shake most of the bees into the box, but there were a significant number flying around as well as small patches of bees in the tree, on the wall and on the ground.

I noted though, that a number of bees in the box began fanning, which is a good indicator that the queen was in the box, as they were fanning pheremones out to guide the other bees to the box. So I decided to leave them to it for a couple of hours. When I returned, I couldn't see any bees, and thought that they had absconded. I looked up in the trees and couldn't see the swarm anywhere, at which point I felt a bit disheartned, thinking that they had flown further away and that I may have lost them for good. But then I looked more closely into the box, and was pleased to see a very orderly cluster of bees under the lid of the box.

So I closed the box, taped it shut, wrapped it in a sheet and put it in my shed, where it will remain for a day or two whilst I prepare one of the Warre hives. I don't know how well this swarm will fare, as it is very small, and I still think that it may be a secondary cast rather than the primary swarm, and that I've lost the primary swarm; and it is very late in the season, not a good time for swarming, and they are unlikely to be able to build up the stores and numbers in order to be able to survive the winter. I have since read that there is such thing as a "Starvation Swarm" which can occur late in the year when the bees have insufficient stores in their hive and the nectar flow in the surrounding area is not good. The old queen takes off with a load of bees to try and find a new home where foraging is more plentiful. Unfortunately it has been a bad year all round as far as nectar flow goes, so they are unlikley to find any such place. I will feed them with the herbal tea and sugar mix (2 parts sugar to one part water for the Autumn feed, thicker than the 1:1 ratio used in the Summer) and use plenty of Thyme in the herbal tea to help protect against varroa, plus nettle which apparantly helps them produce more brood. I may also have to consider giving them a pollen substitute - a mixture of garlic powder and brewers yeast, as both pollen and nectar supplies may be insufficient now, and pollen is required to rear brood. Other than that, we are in the hands of the Bee Goddess!

The Casting out of the Drones and Preparing for Winter

Oh for a life of comfort in the warm hive
For a drone it is good to be alive!
When it seemed long summer days would never end
Our hard working sisters to us dearly tend,
Who never cease to toil away
Bringing pollen and nectar every day
Building comb, cleaning, feeding young
Making honey when the day is done,
While we would preen and strut our stuff
Not a days work expected of us!
Looking pretty is our role
And pleasure flights when we feel the call,
To explore and congregate with the chaps
Enjoy hospitality from another hive, perhaps
Til welcomed home by sisters dear,
We never had any need to fear.
Our every need and whim fulfilled -
Who'd have thought they'd have us killed?
Oh what has become of those carefree days?
Now forcibly ejected, pushed away!
Ripping at wing and leg
Sisters, why treat us this way I beg?
Rejected, ejected, left to die
Dismembered by wasps when we can't fly
Why this fate? Oh woe is me!
It shouldn't happen to a dandy bee!

Karin Rainbird 16th September 2011


When checking the apiary and observing the bees in the last couple of days I was struck by the number of drones I saw around the hive.

It is that time of year when the hive begins to reduce in number and prepare for the winter. Drones may be forcibly ejected from the hives, the guard bees pushing them away with their bodies, and ripping at their legs and wings with their mandibles. Some drones who's wings are still intact, may fly off and try and gain entry to another hive, others will remain sitting in the vicinity of their own hives and try to regain access. I noted a number of drones trying to get back into my hive, and the guard bees are at the moment still tolerant, and allowing some of them back in.

Others seemed less fortunate, and I observed a wasp attempting to carry one of the drones (twice its size) off. Wasps will dismember drones and carry them off bit by bit, but I couldn't bear to see this and chased the wasp away. Tits, sparrows and other birds may also eat the drones and drone pupae which are ejected from the hive.
Drones can be easily recognised and distinguished from worker bees by their size and large eyes. They are longer, fatter and fluffier than worker bees and their eyes take up pretty much their whole heads.

Drones are also stingless, their sole role being to mate with a queen and pass on the genes from their mother. They have no role in collecting nectar or pollen, housekeeping or rearing brood, though they may well have a role in temperature control within the hive. Due to their limited role and use, they are ejected in the Autumn, to ensure that there is enough food left for the workers and brood to survive the winter and ensure the survival of the colony. If the drones are being ejected from a colony in the Autumn, it is a sign that the colony is "Queen Right", i.e. that the colony is doing well and has a good healthy queen who is laying plenty of eggs. If the colony does not eject the drones, then it is likely that they are planning to supercede their queen for one reason or another. So hopefully, my hive is queen right and doing well. My last inspection revealed plenty of new comb built, and some honey, though as I didn't do a thorough inspection looking at all the combs, it is diffiuclt to know how full their stores are. As it has been a dry year this year as far as nectar flow goes, I decided to give them another feed of sugar syrup to ensure they have stores through the winter. This time I made a preparation with nettle, which apparantly the bees love (according to Phil Chandler on the Natural Beekeeping course I attended in Devon last weekend); chamomile, to give some flower essence; and thyme, in the hope that the thyme will help protect against varroa mites. Phil Chandler also suggested on the course that a few drops of tea tree oil can be added to the sugar syrup feed and that this will also protect against varroa, and that the bees don't mind it. This is surprising as most insects hate tea tree oil. But bees aren't most insects! And tea tree is very effective against fleas, lice, mosquitos and other blood sucking insects, so it may well work against mites that suck the bees blood. I may try that next time if varroa appear to be a problem.