In a message dated 29/08/03 05:02:20 GMT Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< You don't keep a strain or hybrid of Amm by any chance? This is classic
 behavior for Amm or hybrids, do you have a problem with swarming and slow
 build up as well?
  >>

They are local mongrels with a largeish proportion of Amm.  They do swarm
from time to time if conditions are right for that.  The usual stimulus seems to
be intermittent poor weather but they can go for years without swarming: the
grandmother of these bees was in her 4th year when she went and I think she was
superseded -there was no obvious drop in population or yield as one would
expect if they had swarmed.

Some time ago I looked back over about 20 years of records of swarms taken
and lost and the peak swarming time is between 20th and 30th May with the
earliest and latest being 24th April and 4th September.  Without checking the
records again, my imprression is that a good half the swarms are in that peak time.

Their build up is appropriate for the area. I don't take them around chasing
fields of early rape or similar industrial crops so there is no great benefit
in having an unseasonably early build up.

So my bees do swarm and do build up slowly but I don't regard these matters
as problems.

I bought a new boiler suit after the stinging episode and have been back to
that hive and the one next door since and the bees hardly looked at me. Perhaps
I should chuck the suit in the washing machine more often!

Chris

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