Spring is always the season when bees want to swarm, this season is no different, in fact it’s the worst season for swarms in years! So many beekeepers are finding it challenging to stop their bees from wanting to leave, but sometimes it just doesn’t matter how good you are at maintaining your hives, when they want to go then they’ll go.
We have had a few swarm this season and apart from having another beekeeper come and collect one, we’ve just had to let them go as we don’t have the spare equipment or space to house anymore hives. When a hive swarms it takes about half of the colony and the queen as well as honey stores, the hive is then left with a new queen ready to hatch so they can rebuild again.
We had one particular hive swarm 4 times within a month, the weather wasn’t great but as soon as the conditions were good enough Chris jumped in a few days after the last swarm and removed any visible swarm cells so the new queen that had just hatched would go on her mating flight and then stay in the hive, it was a success and the hive has been happy ever since. This is a very productive hive and has yielded the most honey this season so far. We currently have 20 healthy active hives.