…A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon: A swarm of bees in July is not worth a fly.” (English Proverb 1670)

Well, I should be good for lots of hay this year if this ancient proverb is to be believed. Let’s hope they’ve got it out of their system.

I started the year with three hives and a nuc, (a small hive with 6 frames), and now I have 6 hives. Honeybees never disappoint. Have a look at the last blog, wherein I explain the reasons honeybees swarm and then you’ll see it’s no surprise that they’re off and running! It’s how they reproduce… aka 3 have become 6!

I’m not complaining - it’s a fabulous thing to be a part of. You have to have time and patience to deal with a swarm, that’s if you do as I do. Each beekeeper has their own way. You learn from your mentor and then someone tells you something you’d never heard of so you try it their way and sometimes it clicks and sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve stuck to the way I was taught and below are some pictures and a couple of little video’s for you to watch about the first catch of the season! But before that…

WHAT IS A PRIMARY SWARM?

A primary swarm is the first swarm to leave a hive at the start of the season. It consists of the old queen and half the colony of honeybees, about 25,000. It is so important to catch a swarm, as I said, it’s haf the colony and the chances of it surviving in the wild are pretty remote. If the swarm gets away - what a waste of beautiful bees that would be.

When the bees are preparing to swarm they make lots of queen cells, the first queen out heralds her own arrival creating a tooting sound. This lets the colony know she’s been born. All the queens, still in their cells, make a gurgling sound to let the queen know where they are. They haven’t survived long enough to know better! The queen will then go around and systematically kill the competition. The queen has a sting, but unlike her workers she can use it repeatedly and she does so by stinging the unborn queens through their capped cells until they die or if they are already out of their cells she will fight them to the death.

Sometimes, their can be a secondary swarm. This happens when one of the queens has evaded the new queens death threats and she will take off with half of the remaining half of the colony - about 12,500 honeybees - For a beekeeper that’s extremely annoying as you are left with a very small colony that has to work hard to get going again. If you are lucky enough to find the secondary swarm then you can put them in a nuc, find the queen, offer her out to someone who needs one, there’s always a beekeeper needing a queen), and then re-unite the bees back into their hive.

COLLECTING A SWARM

First of all, if you see a swarm of honeybees, don’t panic. They’re very busy and full of honey and have other things on their mind more important than you. Phone your local beekeeping club and they will send someone round to take it away. Stay out of their way and wait for someone to arrive. But do stay and watch them catch it.

THINGS A BEEKEEPER NEEDS TO COLLECT A SWARM

1. A box

2. A sheet

3. A brush

4. A little wedge

5. Secateurs

6. Large shelf like piece of wood.

7. Ladder?

8. Bee brush

As you can see from the first image in this blog this swarm wasn’t hanging in your ‘picture book’ cluster from a nice thin branch, it had entwined itself around a very thick branch and spread out in several directions. If it’s hanging from a nice thin branch you can gently cut through it with the secateurs and lower it into the box. Carefully turn the box upside down on the sheet, insert a little wedge so there’s a gap for the flying bees to get in - to be with their queen. Boom! However a pair of secateurs wasn’t going to cut this branch! I placed a sheet underneath the cluster and held the box underneath the swarm as close to it as I could. I managed to give the branch a fairly good shake and most of the bees dropped into the box, and then I used a bee brush to sweep the remaining bees down into the box. Of course, doing it like this, (shaking not cutting), results in lots of flying bees wondering what on earth’s going on and you wondering if you’ve got the queen. No queen. No bees. They’ll fly back to the branch to find her! I seemed to have quite a few in the box and the once left flying around weren’t to happy with me and who could blame them? I turned the box upside down and put a little wedge in (as explained above) and took a step backwards. I watched and waited to see what the bees would do. Some flew back up into the tree but the majority started flying into the box. This is a good indication that the queen was, indeed, in the box. I left them to their own devices for a couple of hours.

When the sun had gone down I returned and as you can see. by then, most of the bees were inside the box. Always gently lift the box to check they are in there, sometimes, in your absence they can abscond, and all your efforts will have been wasted. These were still inside the box - deep joy! Now if I was collecting from someone else’s house, I would have prepared a hive at my apiary for their return and I would carefully turn the box the right way up and sealed it up with gaffa tape then wrap the sheet around it and put them in the back of my car and take them home. But this all happened at my apiary so a new hive had been set up with new frames and foundation inside and a large piece of wood was laid down from the hive entrance to the ground. So, I simply folded the sheet around the box and carried it to the new hive. Laid it down on the plank and spread out the sheet along the plank. I gently lifted the box and centred it over the sheet, not too high up, and gave it a short sharp tap with the flat of my hand. Hey presto! The bees fell on to the sheet. At this point you’d think they’d all fly off, but no… they don’t. There’s a bit of a stunned silence as if they all were thinking “well what happened there then?” A few bees start flying around and now it’s time to sit back and watch. It’s amazing. The scout bees start flying around and at some point they discover the entrance to the hive. They wander in and out a few times and it’s as if they whistle to the queen and all the workers and say “Over here! Come this way, there’s a great place right here!” They literally all start walking towards the entrance and the whole process takes about 45 minutes before the vast majority are in. Job done! Go home, make yourself a cup of tea or pour yourself a glass of wine… a good job has been done!

Note to all new beekeepers. Don’t feed a swarm. The bees have filled their tummies with honey for this very purpose and they don’t need feeding. Also, if it’s not your swarm, they might have a disease and it’s best for them to use up their stores to build the new comb so they can start afresh. If there isn’t much around for the bees to forage on you can feed them after about three of four days to give them a helping hand, but they should have enough with them to get the foundation pulled out and the queen will start laying within about 24 hours and so the whole process starts again. Within three or four weeks, it will be full of bees again!

Occasionally, you can go back to visit the hive the next morning and they’ve flown off, but that doesn’t happen very often.

May I say, it was about 7.30 when I left feeling very satisfied, and for some reason I looked up as I walked away and… spotted another swarm in a different tree. Oh the dilemma. I was tired. The swarm was really high up in this tree. It flashed through my mind “Bloody bees… why did I look up…they can stay there.” But you see I’m a beekeeper and I couldn’t walk away. They might take off which would be sad and if they didn’t and it was really cold that night they may not survive.

This time though, I worked really quickly. Same process as before. Prepared the hive etc. Went up an extremely long ladder with my husband bravely standing at the bottom, in a bee suit, keeping it steady, (he’s allergic to bee stings). Again they were on an enormous branch that I couldn’t cut so I had to shake them into the box then brush off the stragglers. They weren’t happy. It was now about 8.30 and getting cold and dark. They were, in their opinion, in a nice warm cluster and set for the night, but I couldn’t leave them there. I was having to look up because the cluster was at an awkward angle so when I shook the branch a lot of bees fell on my face and I did get stung a few times. I quickly retreated down the ladder and carried the box over to the hive which was open at the top. I’d removed a few frames and I tipped the box upside down and gave it a sharp tap. The bees fell in, I quickly closed up the hive and walked away! Not ideal, but, in the circumstances the best I could do.

The good news. I went back the following morning and both swarms were in their new hives. Wa-hey!

AH - BUT THE REWARDS

So we look after our honeybees and our honeybees look after us. I love being a beekeeper, they’re absolutely fascinating and being so close to nature is incredible. Honeybees, although they don’t survive in the wild are wild insects and they allow us to get so up close and personal. We actually go into their nests. We manipulate them. We take their stores (albeit the stores they couldn’t possibly use up, but they don’t know that). Can you imagine going into a nest of wasps and having a look around and taking their food? I don’t think so. Being with honeybees is about as close to nature as you can get! My gratitude to the bees as I do my inspections knows no bounds. Bees are essential pollinators for the plants and crops that provide our food. And what about the sheer joy, they provide us with, from the wonderful blossoms and flowers?

Honeybees are in decline. We need more beekeepers. The reward? Knowing we are providing a vital contribution to our local ecosystem because without the honeybees there would be and ecological hole unable to be filled by any other species.

And of course, last but not least… honey… their gift to us for looking after them. I’ve made this video showing that, when we remove the supers from the hives no bees are harmed in any way during this process. We are taking away excess stores. Because they are kept in hives they couldn’t possibly get through the amount of stores they’ve built up. To not collect it would be a sin. Not only is it delicious, it’s 100% natural - straight from the beehive into a jar - ok, via a sieve!

SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF HONEY

High in antioxidants that benefit our health. Replacing sugar with high quality honey can be effective in prevention of heart disease • Anti bacterial and anti fungal properties that can help with the healing burns and other wounds • Helps with tickly coughs • Oh, and a favourite of mine; pat a little bit of honey on your face - do not go outside! - leave on for 10 minutes then rinse of with warm water, feel how soft your skin is. True! And, last but not least, proper honey from a local beekeeper is simply delicious.

NB. Do not give honey to children under a year.

What better way to leave you this month than with a picture of a honey bee landing in a flower, diving in and flying off with her goods.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it together. It’s been a busy time with the rapeseed harvest and the swarming. Maybe June will be a bit quieter, who knows? They’re honeybees and they certainly do their own thing. Whatever they have in store for me, I will look forward to next months adventure and even more so to sharing it with you.

I wish you all a lovely June…