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.
When it comes to rescuing honeybees I have decided to leave that for the younger keepers and those more willing to work off ladders and willing to suffer the Texas heat. I am willing to go round up a swarm out of a bush or off the ground or, as in this post, a low to the ground trap out opportunities. In this case the only entrance was at the base of a tree and lent itself to a relatively straight forward trapout effort for me.
So, what is a trapout? I had to laugh at my research for this blog post. There was one site that referred to the process as “glacially” slow…..isn’t that the truth. Three to four weeks is a likely time frame. It requires that all entrances to the colony inside whatever it is are reduced to one single opening. I had one several years ago before I narrowed down my acceptance of such jobs, that went on almost 6 weeks and about $40.00 of caulking to seal the roof line access gaps. Yes, I got them out, but no, I did not capture them. Success too many times is minimal but here in the south, chances for success are much better.
How did I do on this effort? I was very pleased with my one-way escape plan. The cone was as perfect as I have ever built. The tree lent iself to the process with it’s low opening and broad trunk base making the escape truly one way. Using the 1/8 inch hardware cloth is sized so bees cannot squeeze back in and the cone long enough and tight enough at the escape point to prevent a return to the colony in the tree. Returning bees are guided primarily by scent and prior orientation flights for the tree’s access hole. The cone screen material actual makes it impossible for the retuning bees to see the 3/8 inch escape opening.
First things first. I brought out a 10 frame deep box with 4 or 5 frames of drawn comb and the rest were undrawn frames with foundation. In a classic trapout I could have opted to add a frame of brood and nurse bees along with a queen but chose not to….It was a long shot, but I hoped I could get returning foragers into my box, adding nectar and pollen while awaiting the queen and attendants to be starved into leaving and taking up residence in my box.
I measured the tree base and cut a screen big enough to more than cover the hole with plenty of lagniappe to adequately force the bees out through the cone.My damn near perfect cone – pat myself on the back!!!!!!Box set near the base of the tree and prior to adding the escape.All set and after an hour or two observing and 2 beers of some sort, I was pleased to see that bees could only escape through the cone and not find a way back into the tree.
Now, several week later I went out to observe. Clayton, the property owner, informed me that there has been no activity escaping through the cone for quite some time. I drove out to see what was going on. There were maybe a few hundred bees in the box, some the drawn comb was wet with nectar indicating that the escapees had been working but not any evidence that they had tried to set up housekeeping. Then I noticed some small hive beetle larvae slurping up nectar on some of the frames but not to the point of sliming and ruining the comb……Now scramble time for me. It became obvious that the colony did starve out and likely absconded. The few bees remaining were either stragglers or robbers. I did have a very nice swarm captured several weeks earlier and they seemed to be growing fast. I placed them into a 5 frame box and prepped them to travel and take up residence in the box at Clayton’s place. I should actually say, at Clayton and Aurora’s place.
The swarm capture from several weeks prior…..healthy size swarm.Feeder in place and entrance reduced to help the colony manage potential robbers.
I added the previously captured swarm and purged the few wet frames and those with small hive beetle larvae with good frames. Now time to seal the hole in the tree, otherwise the scent will be a magnet to any bees looking for a home. Success in some ways, maybe not so much for the colony that absconded, summer is not a good time for bees to swarm……summer in this part of the world may be short on the resources they need. I needed a home for the swarm I caught so that is a win here.
From My Backyard 