4/21/07 swarm in Southern NJ

[JBird]

My booming Russian/Carniolan hive threw a swarm yesterday which I managed to hive after a few exciting moments.  Now I'll just hope they remain in the hive and may give them a frame of brood, a hivetop feeder and confine them later today to increase the chances of them staying put.  As it is, they only have two old drawn combs with eight frames of foundation, so I'm nervous about them accepting their new digs as is. 

This is as early a swarm as I've ever seen in these parts.  The weather has been absolutely bizarre with 5.5 inches of rain followed by sleet and snow last Sunday into Monday and then yesterday, 80F.  I knew I had to get in this hive and open up the brood nest but with this crazy weather I didn't get a chance to do so in time to prevent swarming.

Looking at the parent hive, you could hardly guess they just lost 2-3 lbs of bees, so I realize there is a good chance they could issue additional swarms unless I significantly open up the brood nest (2-4 frames).

Justin

[Brian D. Bray]

I try to examine a hive I know has swarmed to see 2 things: 1) how much was the hive set back (population decrease) by the swarm, and 2) are there any remaining uncapped queen cells that would indicate a stagared emergence of new queens.  If there are uncapped queen cells the hive will swarm again as the 2nd round emerges.  I've seen hives swarm once a week for a month because of that.

I usually keep a primary swarm because it is large and has an established queen.  Latter after swarms have a tendency to be progressively smaller--those I re-unite with the mother hive.