Swarming Frenzy

We've all been there. A day out with the family, a full day in your busy day job or a full day in hot weather covered in head to toe bee suit and as you get home you get a call, "I've been given your name by Bob. He said you keep bees. There is a swarm in my garden I'm allergic to them. Can you come and get them?"

Your head thinks I was going to put my feet up, I'm too busy for this tonight, have I got enough equipment for them? The list goes on. My immediate thought is to always say yes! In this blog I want to talk about my reply. Is yes the right answer?

Small swarm in a local pub garden

So as many of you will have read I'm quite new to this and I want to increase my colony numbers. Surely collecting swarms is the right thing to do? Free bees, a ready made colony another hived filled, maybe they'll make honey for next year?

Lets be honest there is a great excitement about going to get a swarm of bees, you don't know what you're getting, the pleasure of helping someone out, the chance to talk about bees with someone who maybe doesn't know much about them and being able to educate someone about our hobby and nature. There are many pluses.

So, let me tell you about my first swarm. I'd been at work all day and was with my now 9 year old lad one evening when I saw on social media someone asked if anyone could collect a swarm of bees. Being keen I was straight on it making promises to go right away. I knew the location which is about 30 minutes away from my house and was very surprised when I was told they were on one of the "less desirable" estates in the area and not only that one of the worst roads. Well I'd said I'd go now hadn't I!?

My lad ready to collect bees!

I jumped in the Land Rover and off I trundled with my lad in tow bringing a brand new BS Honeybees Nuc. I got there and for anyone who doesn't know Defenders very well the doors don't really lock, the back of them has no lock at all and most of them can be started with any key whether it be Land Rover, Ford or Nissan!

To say I was worried about leaving my very stealable truck there was an understatement! I walked up to the door and a very nice older lady answered the door. She invited me in saying the bees were in the back garden. I walked though the house which was like something from out of "How clean is your house" expecting to see Kim Woodburn stood with her head in her hands.

I went to see the bees which were actually very easy to collect due to hanging on a child's swing and got them all within 30 minutes before putting them in the back of the truck and heading home. Luckily I still had all my tyres and windows! I left them in an apiary treating them for Varroa, feeding them throughout the winter to open them up in the spring to find a very small colony which never actually, despite being fed and cared for grew to fill a full size hive or produced any honey.

In contrast I had a BMH Buckfast colony next to them which produced over 80lb of honey that year with the same forage, feed and treatment. Now you may say that I did something wrong or that Laurence is paying me to promote his bees? Well I may have done something wrong but Laurence definitely isn't paying me!

I can go on to speak about my other swarms I caught last year. A massive swarm I got from near Alford, Lincolnshire. It was an early swarm being caught on the 11th May which swarmed again within a month. Luckily they stayed within my apiary and I was able to recombine the swarm with the original hive. Now I do have to take some blame on that one as I missed queen cell on the bottom of the frame but I've never had any of my other hives swarm. Again, I got no honey from that hive. Are the swarms swarmy?

Large Swarm collected in May

How about the relationships with other beekeepers? We can be a funny bunch can't we? I remember a local beekeeper who I'd never met ringing me because I'd left a nuc somewhere to collect a swarm I'd been called about. They seemed very annoyed I'd not consulted with them! I'm really sorry but who are you? Where did you get my number? These aren't your bees that have swarmed from your apiary you live 20 miles from here!

Also how is the temperament of the swarms you catch? I again can only speak from my limited experience but they're not the best round here!

Here's my maybe controversial, thoughts on it. Factor in the time it takes to collect swarms, the numerous trips back and forth to sort them out to collect your hive, the fuel and offset this against the benefit you get from the bees it starts to look a little less appealing. Added to this I also don't remember having to climb a ladder to inspect my own bees risking life and limb!

Contrast that to spending that time on your own bees, maybe making splits and adding in a mated queen, raising your own queens and actively trying to improve your own stock whilst doing this all of a sudden these "free" bees don't look so great. You can choose when you do the work with your own bees. It's not when you've had a long day at work or when you're stressed because the boss knows nothing and has made you do something you know won't work or asked for that daft report you see no value in and no one reads!

This year if I get a call from a friend to collect a swarm I will go but there is no chance I will be swarm hunting like previous years. I'll be taking control of my own bees, making sure my stock is well looked after and making early splits to continue to build towards my dream of making a side line something more.