h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was bursting with the need to post this latest swarm news here, only to find I had no internet connection. It may become another damp squib result but still... in the meantime:

I got a swarm call on Saturday (day before yesterday) and this time I didn't bother to ask the lady for a photo or ask the trustees for confirmation that these were genuine honeybees, because the behaviour she described was the sort of thing only honeybees do. The lady said they were clustering on a tree branch, about 10ft from the ground. I warned her that this would be my first swarm collection and she seemed happy to let me do the job.

So I went over to Bill's to grab a hive and bind up its entrance and fill it with frames - some containing honey - and a few other things I thought I might need. Forgot my smoker, but then wouldn't have needed it anyway, as happened. And off I went - full of excitement and trepidation. Didn't much fancy climbing a ladder but I was keen to get my first swarm hived.

It turned out they were about 40+ feet above the ground in an Austrian pine - much taller than the huge Leylandiis that used to grow in my front garden. The cluster was amazing - a really big, brown slab of bees, with a cloud of flying bees still joining it. It's what they call a "prime swarm". I tried to get a photo but it didn't come out very well. Insane as it now seems, I was game and thought I'd see how I felt going up the ladder before concluding that it was a near-suicidal endeavour. So the lady went off to ask her husband to fetch out his longest ladder, which she assured me was *very* long indeed. He came out and applied his male spatial abilities to the problem and pointed out that even his very tallest ladder would be too short by about 2 - 3 sections, plus, even if he had one that would reach that far, then I'd have to reach out into space to bag the swarm that was near the end of a branch that was a lot longer than it looked. So that was that. My neck was saved by the nice sensible gentleman.

However, I did have another card up my sleeve. We set up the hive I'd brought as a "bait hive" to attract the swarm in. The moment I got it out of the car, there were scout bees investigating. With such instant interest from the bees, I thought it would be a cert that they'd move in by tomorrow (yesterday, as was) - but they still haven't. I called the lady yesterday to give her my mobile number in case she needed to call me while I was over Bill's and she said they were still hanging from the branch. They must be a very fussy lot is all I can say to that!

So I've done all I can and now all I can do is hope

How exciting, but I am so glad you escaped going up a big ladder like that. Perhaps they are sussing out the new abode before moving in.

If they do, what do you do then Are they yours, someone else's or wild honey bees? Can you add them to your harem or do you have to release them somewhere else?

to ask so many questions but it is interesting.

Websailor

There was a development. I wrote it all out but couldn't post it because there was no broadband signal by the time I came to click the "post message" button.

This was what I was going to say:

"The folks with the bees in their trees have got in touch to say the bees all flew away - to a neighbouring garden they think - but now they're back, but in an apple tree. And they've moved the hive to under the apple tree. And the bees are showing increasing interest in the hive. To start with they were investigating it in ones and twos but now they're coming in parties of half a dozen at a time. I'm itching to get over there, but I think the nice lady and gentleman are protecting their apple tree from beekeeper mayhem... and I don't blame them for that. It would be so much more convenient if the bees would just stop messing about and install themselves in their new hotel. Actually, it's not really new. It's a second-hand hive that's been ravaged by wax moth. But I've refurbished it and blasted every inner surface with a blow-torch flame to sterilise it and treated the outside with linseed oil to keep it nice and weather-proof. It has everything a bee could ask for (so long as they don't ask for en suite).

Impatiently waiting....."


But that's old news now. They flew away again at about tea time. So disappointed! And thanks to BT I couldn't even come and tell you about it. Maybe the hive was too small for such a large swarm. Maybe the signs of wax moth put them off. Oh well. I'll go and pick up the hive next the weekend. Maybe the bees will come back in the meantime... maybe. Maybe I'd better prepare a hive that's never seen a wax moth, for next time.

***

I would've kept them Websailor. The general opinion among beekeepers and environmentalists seems to be that there are NO wild honey bees any more. Or if there are, they're so rare and remote that nobody ever sees them. They've been wiped out by the varroa and diseases that people imported. It's hard to keep hived bees alive - with a range of treatments that varroa gradually become resistant to - and the treatments can kill the bees too. So this swarm will have come out of some beekeeper's apiary. Once your bees swarm, if you don't notice and go rushing off after them, then they belong to whoever bags them. If a beekeeper is called out to remove a swarm from someone's garden, for example, and they already have all the bees they need themselves, they normally give them to a beginner or sell them. They don't let them go because eventually they'd go the way of all the other wild and feral honey bees and die from some introduced disease or possibly some cocktail of pesticides.

And feel free to ask away. If I know I'll tell you and if I don't, I'll try to find out

Thanks for the update Tib. Most interesting. Perhaps they will come back. Has it gone cold where you are It has been really chilly here and grey too.

I felt so guilty when you mentioned Wax moths! I used to feed Wax worms to my birds. They absolutely kill for them!! Then I found out what they became if they developed, and that the Wax moths are the enemy of bees/beekeepers.

Mine were stored in tubs of wood shavings and the grubs hide in the curls. They are very hard to find and once I left a tub of shavings thinking they had all been removed. I intended to put the wood shavings on the fire but forgot about them.

When I next approached the box I could hear flutterings I peeked inside and there were at least a dozen moths! I hate killing anything but couldn't bring myself to release them knowing there were hives nearby, so I did dispose of them, and No, I didn't burn them on the fire, which would have happened if I had remembered earlier

I shall return for further instalments

Websailor

Wax moths have their place in the scheme of things, Websailor. All those diseases that strike down bees would be so much worse without the good old wax moths. Bees are terrible thieves, you see. And if they find an unguarded hive with honey in it, they'll rob it out completely (and they'll have a go even if it is guarded). So if a colony dies of some horrible, infectious disease and other bees come along and polish off the honey, they'll take the disease back to their own colony. That's where wax moths come into it. They'll destroy all the comb and reduce it to kak - along with the diseases it harbours. That's a valuable service!

I collected the hive yesterday. I wasn't expecting it to have bees in it and didn't go prepared for bees... so, of course, when I got there, I was told it had bees in it - no more than a few hundred. All I could do was seal it up and hope for the best (ie that none would get out in the car and try to help me drive). If there were a few hundred, it would be small "cast" - a fraction of the size of that huge, prime swarm. Still, if it had a queen, I could add a few young bees to help her along and it would soon be a colony.

So I got it back to Bill's (where I'm staying at the mo - critter sitting while he's off on another one of his hols) without any problems, climbed into my gear and opened it up. You have to laugh! There were about 3 bees in it. They were probably from that prime swarm - lodged in someone's loft or cavity wall near by - robbing out the honey. Poor girls got sealed in and now they're a long way from home. Oh dear!

Oh, that was interesting I didn't know that I don't feel so bad now, 'cus the birds do love them

What a laugh. Only three bees after all that trouble. I wonder where the rest of them went?

Websailor

Burning a little bee pollen, or setting a candle under a tin pan with a little bee pollen in it sometimes acts as a strong attractant. (Inside the hive?)

That's interesting ITIWBS. I might give that a go - and it's newsletter time, so I could put that in the newsletter and ask members to give it a go and let us know the results.

Thank you very much