Up till now I had only dealt with swarms from people I know but for some reason this year I decided to become a Swarm Collector for the local beekeepers association.
There are various swarm collectors around the county whose contact details are on their website.
The weather has been terrible for bees so far this year and everything has been pushed back by weeks, including swarming. So apart from a false alarm I heard nothing for a while and then within two days had to deal with situations at the exact opposite end of the collecting spectrum.
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| Good swarm |
He had a swarm in his garden and I got my kit together and went to his farm. Eden had some friends round and we chatted about swarms and what I would do.
The swarm was in a tree about 10ft off the ground I was mildly alarmed when everybody came to watch me. 'Please let me get the queen', 'please don't fall off the ladder', 'please let me get the swarm in the skep', 'please don't let them get stung' I muttered under my breath.
The swarm was very small and had it been later in the season I would have said it was a 'cast' Colonies can swarm several times during the season and can produce small 'cast' swarms after the initial large primary swarm.
The bees were very calm and had collected around the trunk of the tree. I snipped a few small branches to get to them more easily and although I had my veil on to stop them flying up my nose or in my ear, it was an easy job to get handfuls of bees [no gloves!] into the skep.
Below the bees I laid out a sheet to make it easier for the bees to walk into the skep as they struggle to get through grass.. The skep was then put on the sheet and propped up with a small block so the bees could get in.
I had told everyone how if the queen is captured all the other bees will follow her into the skep and if she was left in the tree all the bees would go back to the tree.
By now I had quite an audience watching and I muttered under my breath 'Please let me get the queen', 'Please let me get the queen'.
The bees duly marched into the skep and the flying bees returning to the tree to find their sisters gone, duly joined in.
Eden's son Remy was very interested in the whole process and he put a suite on and went up the step ladder to have a close look look at the few dozen remaining bees. 'So cool' he said.
I got the bees still in the tree in a cardboard box and emptied them onto the sheet near to the skep and to everyone's delight they trooped into the skep.
To collect as many bees as possible I left the skep under the tree and came back at about 9 o'clock. As I was going just down the road to Scald End Remy came with me and his Mum and Dad came as well.
It was getting dark and became quite windy and we took the skep to a part of the field where I will keep it for time being.
The swarm is very small and will need constant feeding and the bees will be moved into a small bee hive called a nuc. This will be the subject of another blog.
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| Bad Swarm |
The day after this I went to the opposite end of the scale.
I had been contacted a week previously by someone renovating a house but the work was being held up by some bees. There was a corridor structure between the main house and an out building and there were bees coming from the roof of the corridor.
Jane was very knowledgeable about bees and appreciated the difference between a swarm which is a collection of calm, transient bees looking for a new home, and a colony which may have established themselves for some time and will actively defend their home.
I said normally association collectors don't do structural work but as Jane and Steve were very keen to try and save them, and that the corridor would be demolished anyway, we agreed to go along and have a look at what could be done.
We met at the house and tried to work out how far they might have got into the roof. I said the main problem is that we could find something like this:-
and it could extend some way into the roof. With the bees on the comb, and queen could be anywhere in the roof, it was not something I could deal with.
It seemed the bees had been there for some time and weren't a swarm but an established colony.
We discussed the various alternatives and what could go wrong and as Steve and Jane were still very keen to try and save them, we agreed to come back and cut some holes in the roof to try and see if anything could be done.
When we came back the bees were still coming and going and were a bit irritable as we approached which is what you would expect from a colony protecting their home.
I had a prod around to see what I could see and ere was comb extending into the recesses of the roof.
Meanwhile Steve was investigating the roof from inside the building.
The difficulty with this type of situation is that its vital you find the queen because if you don't and try to get the other bees out, they will return to find the queen again and she could be hiding in the furthest, darkest recesses of the roof.
We came back again another day and as we uncovered parts of the roof, things got worse until we finally had to give up and called in a pest control firm.
Click the button to see some clips of the swarm.
Entirely Normal Swarm
While I was writing this blog and recovering from the Bad Swarm I had a phone call from a couple in Kempston who had a swarm in their garden.
I arrived to find a reasonable sized clump of bees conveniently resting in a tree at head height.
The bees obligingly were shaken into the skep which was collected in the evening and taken to Scald End
Bumblebees
Its quite common for bumble bees to be confused with honey bees. Its a bit surprising as most bumble bees are far bigger that honey bees and are round and furry. They also make a much deeper noise and do not swarm.
I was asked by someone I know to look at some 'bees' that were coming out of her roof.
I arrived to find a lot of swarm like activity but the 'bees' were too big for honey bees.
While we were talking to the neighbours [WHO WANTED THEM OUT!] one flew by and it was as I suspected, a Tree Bumble bee.
The 'swarming' activity was the males flying around getting quite excited and waiting for the females to emerge.
Just like a Bedford pub on a Saturday night.
There was nothing I could do to get the bees out neither could the pest control firm we contacted so it was [grudgingly by the neighbours] agreed to leave it until the end of the season and then try to seal up the gap where the bees got in.
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