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Witnessing a Swarm Arrival…..Honeybees

March 28, 2024

Bishop Beekeeping, honey, Spring , , 2 Comments

March 27th 2021 I witnessed my first ever swarm arrival. I have been the recipient of swarms taking up residence in one of my boxes, whether is be an actual swarm trap, designed purposefully to capture swarms, an old hive body or a water meter box. On this day I heard and saw tens of thousands of bees in the air and descending onto and into my swarm trap trap box. It would be an understatement to say that I was in awe. With the volume turned up you may actually hear it in my voice.

During the swarm arriving event and throughout it’s duration the bees are non aggressive. They have gorged and loaded themselves up with honey before leaving the old hive with just one goal…….build a new home for the queen to lay eggs in and to grow the colony. Swarming is nature’s way of growing and spreading the colony’s genes. It is usually the old queen that leaves with approximately 50% of the workers. Left behind are the other half and most likely, a queen ready to emerge from a queen cell. There may be many queen cells but the first to emerge kills the others and then prepares to go on a few mating flights. If she is successful she will return mated and having stored the semen of 15 to 20 drones, male honeybees. The drone is a sacrificial portion of this life cycle event. Drones mate and die quickly in most cases. Mating is usually done in a drone congregation area at a distance that reduces the likelihood of the queen mating with a drone from her own colony, thus ensuring diversity and reducing the chance of inbreeding.

My first witnessed swarm arrival and luckily it was in my own backyard. I am standing in the middle of the swirling bodies, tens of thousands of them, T-shirt, shorts and Crocs with no socks…..another story or two there.

One of the amazing things to see after the swarm arrives is the collective action with the workers once the queen is inside the box. Here the queen’s pheromones are fanned by thousands of wings spreading itout across the yard like a sirens call. Once her pheromone is spread they come running……literally marching in to hive at what appears to be a dead run. The “march” is another spectacle that is truly amazing to witness.

Bees marching into the swarm capture box not long after arrival.

I will share more of my experiences with my bees with all y’all.

TTFN

Bishop

Bee Season

March 27, 2024

Bishop Beekeeping , , , 4 Comments

“Looks like bee season is starting early. Early bee season means unmanaged hives, both wild and commercial will cast off swarms. I am a beekeeper of wild/feral bees…….yes I may be a little bit wild, ……My bees are feral, bees with “unpapered” pedigree. They may have an abundance of European pedigree, Apis mellifera. Bees in the wild may have started of as Apis mellifera but as they became feral, the wild queens do not discriminate and will mate with any drone. In fact, on her several mating flights, she will find a drone congregation site filled with many thousands of drones of questionable ancestry. The benefit is diversity and the down side is, Texas in the south half of the state, has lots of drones with Africanized genes.

Why is that important? Africanized bees were developed in Africa…..go figure huh! They were a cross between Apis mellifera and the East African lowland honeybee. They were more productive…..yet more defensive. Brazil imported some and guess what? Twenty-six swarms escaped and began working their way North. California got a surprise dose of the Africanized bees in 1985 before Texas or any other location in the US due to a shipment of oilfield equipment holding an undetected colony of Africanized bees to my old stomping grounds near Bakersfield California. The Africanized bees arrived in Texas in 1990 and were detected around Tucson Arizona by 1994. Northern beekeepers should dodge a bullet as Africanized bees do not care for the cold weather.

I do have some spicy bees but, knock on wood, nothing so spicy that I can’t safely work them. Africanized bees tend to spin off swarms more often and will take up residence in smaller cavities, i.e., like water meter boxes. They can be very productive, so I just tend move carefully/slowly, well protected and respond at the first hint of the alarm pheromone…..My first year of beekeeping taught me a good lesson and was way to slow to respond. Nine years later I have not repeated that mistake.

Guesstimate 70-80 stings to head and face…….long story…….I will tell it one day.

My 73rd birthday was the 12th of March and a day later the swarm birthday gift arrived. They were unexpected, they chose an empty upside down box and yes, I was not quite ready to receive them……very quickly I rounded up gear, empty box and set the hive box up to receive the bees. I will tell you that swarms are very docile, very true……but, I am such a handsome lad with a long memory so I always wade in protected. Well almost totally protected……In the video link I am wearing Crocs with no socks. I did dance …..backwards, relatively quickly, at a couple of points….No stings…….so see what you think…..I may edit this in the future….

Don’t laugh too hard. The receiving hive body is in place now and I gather them up. My wife and young grandson were in the yard watching me unprotected and SAFE. My Daughter in Law and younger grandson were watching from inside.

This swarm was rehomed to my son’s good friend Clayton and his wife, Aurora. Clayton videoed the arrival unsuited and when I let the bees out they greeted Clayton rapidly.. No stings but they made it clear he needed to move away. I had a good laugh……..

Clayton is a big ole boy but still moves pretty damned quickly.

I hope to have a new swarm report and a garden update very soon……

TTFN

Bishop