Subject: Swarming in August?

From: [email-masked] (Dick Desroches, ACC Systems Manager)
Date: 3 Sep 96 16:33:25 -0500

Last week the bees in my one hive (I'm just a backyard hobbyist) started to
swarm.  I thought this was really unusual for late August since normally
in this part of the country (Massachusetts) swarms occur in May or June.

Why this happened is a mystery.  Purchased bees were placed into a new, empty
hive in May.  There is a double deep super as the main hive with an empty
shallow super on top so there was plenty of room in the hive.  Also, the
hive is raised up slighly in front and shaded with 50% shade cloth from the
afternoon sun so I don't think high temperature was a factor.

Does anybody know why a well-ventilated hive with plenty of space would
swarm in late August in Massachusetts???

Thanks,

Dick Desroches

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From: [email-masked] (Joel Govostes)
Date: Tue, 03 Sep 1996 20:19:02 -0500

In article <1996Sep3.163325.1@aspen>, [email-masked] (Dick

> swarm in late August in Massachusetts???

Out here in central NY fall swarming is pretty common, with some years
being worse than others.  It isn't as frequent as the "normal" May/June
swarming, but tends to occur as the fall flow begins.  I went to a
recently-established apiary of mine yesterday and found a beautiful
9-pound swarm hanging just within reach in a pine tree.  The colony that
cast the swarm had been started in July with a new queen and four frames
of brood.  They had space in the supers. What a swarm!  (These late swarms
in my experience are much larger than the ones we see issue in
springtime.)  Fortunately, I had a spare hive body, lid, floor, etc. on
the truck and hived them easily.  

Fall swarming presents a real problem, in that the parent colony has
precious few weeks to get going again with a new queen (soon to hatch). 
Meanwhile, the swarm doesn't have much time to really get rolling and
store up food for winter.  According to Roger Morse fall swarms are
basically doomed, but his research has indicated that the behavior is
pretty common, in this area anyway.  This time of year the colonies are
strong and on the verge of a heavy nectar flow from goldenrod.  Evidently
this is enough to push some of them over the top and they swarm like it
was the middle of May! I was surprised that a young queen would lead a
swarm so soon after the establishment of a colony, but this year has been
**exceptiona**l (honey-flow and weather wise).  I hope you caught the
swarm -- you can re-unite it with the parent in a couple of weeks or feed
the heck out of them so they can raise a few cycles of brood before winter
and have some good stores socked away. I hope you can give them some TLC
so they will be in fine shape next spring...

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From: Dave MacFawn <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 5 Sep 1996 20:20:39 GMT

Usually swarming is caused by congestion of the brood nests. 
You may want to check this.  I have seen where a new queen will
fill up the brood nest with brood quickly and cause congestion,
even thought all the frames are not drawn out.  The thing to be
careful here now is afterswarms.  You may want to go into the
hive and check for more queen cells and your original queen (I
hope she is marked).   Or  you may now just let nature take her
course...you will not usually loose many bees in the afterswarms
compared to the prime swarm.   You will probably get your hive
requeened with a new queen since the old queen usually leaves
with the swarm.

>==========Dick Desroches, ACC Systems Mana, 9/3/96==========
>

dave macfawn
AT&T Global Information Solutions
[email-masked]
(803) 939-7409