# Maybe scout bees?



## rwlaw (May 4, 2009)

A swarm in may is worth a load of hay, a swarm in june is worth a silver spoon, a swarm in july isn't worth a fly. Never did hear about one in august, maybe disgust (for the beekeeper LOL)? At the latitude your at and the fact that we're in between summer and fall nectar flows, they're just snoopin (is the wife baking pies?). Keep up the swarm box and maybe set out a feed station (can be something something simple like a mason jar thru a hole in a plywood plate) in the spring. You got em around, just gotta make em feel at home


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## Cleo C. Hogan Jr (Feb 27, 2010)

rwlaw said:


> A swarm in may is worth a load of hay, a swarm in june is worth a silver spoon, a swarm in july isn't worth a fly.


rwlaw... I have heard those old sayings all my life, and I believe most people interpret them wrong. 

That saying has to do with how much honey they will make in the current season. I caught a swarm last year on 6 October, (at least 3 months late in Kentucky) and they made it through the Winter just fine, and this year was a good hive, giving me 3, 5 frame nuc splits, (I sell Nucs), but, had I not taken the bees and brood for splits, that colony would likely have made surplus honey for me to take. None in the current year, but good next year.

I guess I would say this about an August swarm. "A swarm in August, will next year be robust." You can always feed, or manipulate some honey from somewhere else and get them through the Winter. Next year you will have one hive more than you had before.

cchoganjr


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## gwpeter911 (Aug 8, 2013)

Trust your gut Tom. Gotta agree with Mr. Hogan. My first swarm was in August and started the same way, saw a couple of Honeybee scouts...then a few more, snooping. That year, I'd left an old, empty amp box at the end of the bee yard, plus some big overturned clay flowerpots over near the garage (hoping to temp. house any potential absconds on my fields/orchard) from the pesticide-choked golf greens the neighbors call lawns. Instead of losing any bees, I got a feisty new colony. Baited each with burr comb, a few pollen granules and used queen cages /the UPS mailers they came in for that bee curious smell.


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## Bee Matt (Aug 1, 2013)

I'm Wisconsin too. Was going to put out a lure hive with LemonGrass Oil for attractant. Thought it was too late for this year, but I'm going to stick one out tonight just in case. What can it hurt, EH ?


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## Bee Matt (Aug 1, 2013)

Put out a deep 10 frame with 6 frames and two cotton balls with the LemmonGrass oil . 2 drips per cotton ball. Put it on top of a shed. I'm not holding my breath, but worth a try. The equipment would just be sitting in my barn otherwise.


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## shannonswyatt (May 7, 2012)

That saying predates the lang by a couple hundred years. So if you keep hives in skeps then it probably applies, particularly if you live were sugar isnt available, otherwise it doesn't mean anything anymore.


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