# August swarms?



## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Just caught one. The hive it came from is honey bound badly.
How common is it to get an early August swarm in the midwest?
Second question: How come they did not swarm with the first capped cell? I suppose maybe they did but I don't think so. The hive was crazy full of bees when I found all them capped cells. 

The colony is someone else's, package from the south, meaner than heck, chased me off two weeks ago when I found OMG at least a dozen capped queen cells. I could not get deep enough into the hive to do anything last check, they poured out the sides and attacked me fiercely so I gave up about 5 or 6 frames into the top deep (two deeps). I knew they were going to swarm but had an idea that no way was I telling them no.

The swarm lit onto a 3' tall hazelnut tree. There is a row of them. Wish I could post the pics because it's about a 6 pounder.
Lotta bees. 

I'm thinking AHB.


----------



## GaryG74 (Apr 9, 2014)

Not that unusual here in AL. I usually get a half dozen or so every year. I have caught swarms in October here. The ones here are usually fairly small, grapefruit or football sized at the largest. Even with adding drawn frames, feeding, and maybe a frame of brood, I only get about 50% to survive winter. Those that do are usually gang busters the next year.
They may have been queenless and had to wait for the first virgin before they could swarm. If so, that could explain the meanness. You could take a chance and requeen them after they've drawn a lot of comb. They may not be as mean with the new (swarm) queen. If they are mean, you could order a queen and requeen.


----------



## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

This was a two colony apiary until July 1 when the first colony tried swarming. I intercepted it and put the old queen into a split and let the queen cells in the original go. Well, I cut all out but two of the most perfect, beautiful, long cells. 

That colony made queen and mated her but of course there was a brood interruption. I think the stronger colony has robbed all the honey from it's sister. Will see tomorrow as I got hot today collecting the swarm and inspecting what I could focusing on the hive that swarmed. It has a mated queen today but she's kind of puny IMO. We shall see how it goes.

The bright side is I have a comb builder to feed and letter rip. 
Two turned into four. Sweet. 

Lord, I pray we get a nice autumn flow this year. Amen.


----------



## flyin-lowe (May 15, 2014)

I have heard of swarms in August and September in east central Indiana. I think the problem with catching them that late is trying to get them through the winter. The only two swarms I got this year came in the 2nd and 3rd week of July.


----------



## cavscout (Apr 21, 2015)

Do y'all have AHB issue's up north? Thought that was a southern problem.


----------



## bjverano (Jun 18, 2014)

We have a swarm that a friend found in an old gas tank. That's the craziest place for a swarm but we figured they won't survive through winter inside a metal gas tank so are trying to coax them into my warre hive. We think the dark grey metal will get so hot in the sun that they'll go down into the warre where there's already some comb. It will be interesting to see what they decide to do.
This is the first day here and they are checking out the entrance on the warre and a few have gone in and out already. So Aunt Betty time will tell- we are farther south from Champaign so may not get as cold here- if they populate the warre and stay it will be interesting to see. It will always be the "gas tank hive" from now on! Good luck with yours !
Bonnie


----------



## Northwest PA Beekeeper (Mar 28, 2012)

aunt betty, I doubt your hive is AHB. You are too far North and most AHB's throw smallish swarms - or so I've heard.

I'm sure they were mean in part due to being queenless. But, it could very well be that the queen's eggs just have a nasty temperment.

Once they have a laying queen, see if that doesn't calm them down. If not, wait until next Spring and pinch the queen. Either buy a queen or add a queen cell or frame of young eggs from a gentler queen.

The meaner hives seem to be the most productive though!!

As for August swarms, in the past 3 days I've heard of 3 different swarms. One of them was a call today that people have a swarm high up in their tree. The plan is to take a hive with comb and lemongrass oil and hope the scounts find it.

Last year I had a swarm in early September. I think the rash of swarms lately is due to the oncoming fall harvest. The early golenrod is in bloom with the main crop of regular goldenrod to start soon. Some hives are at full capacity, so the bees do what comes naturally. Sadly, for any swarms this late that aren't helped by a beekeeper, it's pretty much a death sentence. Just not enough time to construct a new home and bring in enough stores for winter.

If the swarm from today moves into my hive, I'll add a full deep on top that is full of honey to try to bring them through the winter.


----------



## CreamPuffFarm (Apr 28, 2011)

We just had a swarm 2 days ago also. I could have almost surrounded it with my two hands it was so small. I put them in a nuc with some sugar syrup. Mostly I hived them because I'm thinking I might need that queen in another poor doing hive. I figure it nothing else, they can boost the population in the poor doer.


----------



## BeePappy (Apr 13, 2013)

Aunt Betty, we've brought a small swarm from September through a Winter just fine. Kept the feed on, and insulated the box to keep the wind away. They built up fast in the Spring.

We just had a small swarm two days ago. I noticed the bees in flight and watched them go about 25' up into a nearby tree. They settled in, about the size of a softball. They weathered a hard storm with heavy rain. Two days later they're still there so I went ahead and captured them today. Did a little experiment with a frame of drawn comb, clamped on the end of a 18' steel pole. I got up on a step ladder and put the frame under them. I'd say I got about half of them that way. Then I went with our swarm bucket capture method to get the rest. Put them into a 5 frame Nuc, 2.5 frames of drawn comb is all I had. I put on some syrup and will hope for the best. I think they're getting a lot of interest from the neighboring hives due to the syrup. There's too few of them to put up a defense so I bet they'll share.


----------



## BeePappy (Apr 13, 2013)

Aunt Betty, we've brought a small swarm from September through a Winter just fine. Kept the feed on, and insulated the box to keep the wind away. They built up fast in the Spring.

We just had a small swarm two days ago. I noticed the bees in flight and watched them go about 25' up into a nearby tree. They settled in, about the size of a softball. They weathered a hard storm with heavy rain. Two days later they're still there so I went ahead and captured them today. Did a little experiment with a frame of drawn comb, clamped on the end of a 18' steel pole. I got up on a step ladder and put the frame under them. I'd say I got about half of them that way. Then I went with our swarm bucket capture method to get the rest. Put them into a 5 frame Nuc, 2.5 frames of drawn comb is all I had. I put on some syrup and will hope for the best. I think they're getting a lot of interest from the neighboring hives due to the syrup. There's too few of them to put up a defense so I bet they'll share.


----------



## BeePappy (Apr 13, 2013)

Aunt Betty, we've brought a small swarm from late September through a Winter just fine. Kept the feed on, and insulated the box to keep the wind away. They built up fast in the Spring.

We just had a small swarm two days ago, out first August swarm. I noticed the bees in flight and watched them go about 25' up into a nearby tree. They settled in, about the size of a softball. They weathered a hard storm with heavy rain. Two days later they're still there so I went ahead and captured them today. Did a little experiment with a frame of drawn comb, clamped on the end of a 18' steel pole. I got up on a step ladder and put the frame under them. I'd say I got about half of them that way. Then I went with our swarm bucket capture method to get the rest. Put them into a 5 frame Nuc, 2.5 frames of drawn comb is all I had. I put on some syrup and will hope for the best. I think they're getting a lot of interest from the neighboring hives due to the syrup. There's too few of them to put up a defense so I bet they'll share.


----------



## BeePappy (Apr 13, 2013)

ooops! Sorry for the multiple posts. Tried and cannot find how to delete them. The "Edit Post" link does not work with my browser.


----------



## Karen of NH (Jan 30, 2014)

.

Last year I had a swarm in early September. I think the rash of swarms lately is due to the oncoming fall harvest. The early goldenrod is in bloom with the main crop of regular goldenrod to start soon. Some hives are at full capacity, so the bees do what comes naturally. Sadly, for any swarms this late that aren't helped by a beekeeper, it's pretty much a death sentence. Just not enough time to construct a new home and bring in enough stores for winter.

If the swarm from today moves into my hive, I'll add a full deep on top that is full of honey to try to bring them through the winter.[/QUOTE]

I hope new beeks read this and check how full their hives are and add a super. the goldenrod flow can fill a super. Got two swarm calls yesterday and brought home two new swarms here in NH. I will use them to get some comb drawn and then assess the queens laying pattern before I combine or try to winter in a nucs.


----------



## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Last Saturday I caught another swarm that was about 35 miles from the last one so I don't think they are related.
The swarm was large (6-8#) and infested with beetles. Put it into two deeps with two gallons of 2:1 and 4 beetle traps. 
We had spring until fall here sort of and it's not quite fall yet. I'm hoping for a fall flow and them bees were betting on it.

It was odd. I took the screens off Sunday morning from moving it Saturday night. Inspected Monday and gee wow there was a lot of beetles. Found the queen and she looked fat and happy. Could not get them traps filled and in quickly enough. I get the willies from them SHB.


----------



## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

Unfortunately for me, I have some hives banking on the fall flow here too. One swarmed, another I simply underestimated how much brood this freshly mated lady was going to want to use. So she blew up and they were starting preps. Split the queen off and shook most of the bees into a 5-over-5 nuc with a gallon of feed on top. Hoping there is still time to raise a queen or four and get the mated. Seems like a losing proposition to me, but good number of colonies are thinking the same thing in my apiary. Never had a dearth to make them eat up some of their stores. Good and bad at the same time. Going to take a lot more late summer management than I'd figured.



aunt betty said:


> The swarm was large (6-8#) and infested with beetles.


Possible abscond? I didn't realize beetles swarmed with the bees. That's crazy...
Haven't ever seen a single one of them up here. You guys can keep 'em.


----------

