BeeLines - June '25

“If only the bees would read the same books as the beekeepers!” This traditional saying came to mind recently because of two particular observations. Firstly, why haven’t we had a swarm arrive at one of our bait hives? Secondly, why didn’t a strong hive that we split attempt to make queen cells?

A bit of background to these two observations. As these notes are written on the 27th May we have just experienced approximately three weeks with hardly any rain, almost unbroken sunshine, and a possible new National record for the sunniest and driest UK Spring. Although the shallow soil in our veg garden has become very dry, it is early in the season and there has been no problem with the bramble bushes and many other plants bursting into flower. It seemed an ideal time to pre-emptively split a favourite and strong colony. The plan (the ‘beekeepers plan’!) was for the queenless half of the split colony to make queen cells, and, when sealed, divide again to make, probably two new colonies. Although the hive had a marked queen she was not seen and so the brood frames were divided 50:50 between another brood box (frames with foundation added to complete the 11 frame complement of each box). Seven days later (15th May) we checked the colonies; the queen was seen busy in the first box inspected. The second box also had plenty of busy bees, the remains of sealed brood, but not one queen cell! The bees were busy packing vacant cells with lots of nectar amongst the remaining sealed brood. Did the queenless colony have eggs when it was split? Had this been our mistake? We had just assumed there would be eggs…a case of over-confidence perhaps? On the other hand, Shân has a theory that colonies prioritise nectar collection when there is a honey flow - which we are sure there has been. Anyway, we took a frame from its sister colony and made sure the frame contained eggs.

We now know what happened next; queen cells were duly made on the introduced frame and the colony is being left alone to (hopefully) raise a new queen.

And to our other observation and second question, ‘why haven’t we had a swarm arrive at one of our bait hives?’ We have recently arrived back home from a lovely sunny holiday on the west coast of Ireland. During the warm sunny days before we left there had been plenty of scouting activity at a number of our bait hives. After being away for a week we were surprised to find no arrived swarm. The evening when we arrived home from our holiday we even went out and tapped and listened to the bait hives - only to be disappointed to find not one contained a swarm. Of course there is no obligation for a swarm to choose one of our bait hives. But, there again, there is Shân’s theory that bees prioritise nectar collection over swarming when there is a honey flow. We have noted this behaviour a number of times over the seasons and believe the theory has merit. If that is the case, might this be a low-swarming year? Or, once the rain - that has now arrived - stops will we see a burst of swarming? Perhaps members can tell us of their own experiences and what they think about this observation?

If you have comments, information, a bee story or tips you would like to share with members please let us know and I will include them in BeeLines.