Just a report from Kangaroo Island, in case everybody has forgotten me!
 
Swarming season has been even more hectic than usual.  With 6000 hectares of
canola this year on Kangaroo Island and only 1100 registered hives, the
farmers have probably been receiving great pollination benefit from the
feral hives existing in hives, burrows, buildings, tree hollows.
 
However as most feral hives run out of room under pressure of a honey/pollen
source such as canola or capeweed, swarms issue daily for a period of about
4 weeks.
 
Local beekeepers both capture swarms and place trap hives to entice feral
swarms.  As only pure Ligurian bees exist on the Island, these can be
incorporated into apiaries for breeding queens or replenishing hive losses.
 
We have captured/trapped 42 swarms to date.  There are still some full trap
hives out in the apiaries so will probably finish with about 50 swarms added
to our stocks.  The most successful attractant was a small casuarina tree
just over the road from our back fence. We got into the habit of glancing
over the fence on warm days - more often than not, another swarm had
arrived.  We took 16 swarms this year from that tree.  Hope it doesn't grow
too high by next season.
 
Another favourite site was in our driveway where some condemned frames were
in old nucleus boxes - swarms would continually fill the space around the
car and settle in.  A very intriguing sight to watch swarms in full flight
and how quickly they zero in on the selected box when they have a dozen to
choose from.
 
Collecting feral swarms is a good way to build up stocks but in a heavy
swarming season you don't want your own hives to swarm and cut down
production.  We have not been 100% successful although the trap hives are a
fall back position if the hives do swarm.  However our swarm management
appears more successful this year than previously.
 
The principle of our swarm management is to separate the queen and any
potential queens from the field bees.  To do this, we use a screen divider
board based on the Snelgrove method but with only one exit which we orient
to the back of the hive.  We lift the queen and any unsealed brood above the
screen division so that field bees will return to the front entrance and the
queen and nurse bees will remain in the top box.
 
Apiary visits are at intervals of 3 to 4 weeks per site.  On the next visit,
we remove the screen division, remove any sealed honey from bottom box and
return queen and brood to bottom brood box.  Any bees that have oriented to
the back of the hive seem to find their way to the front and the hives are
strong and have lost the swarming impulse.
The queen has continued to lay and the hive is bursting with bees.
 
We requeen in autumn as an additional swarm control method.
 
In addition, the honey has been flowing in and we have taken 3-1/2 tonnes
over the last 3 months from 150 hives.
 
I'll keep my fingers crossed that the season continues to be successful.
 
Betty McAdam
HOG BAY APIARY
Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
J.H. & E. McAdam<[log in to unmask]
http://kigateway.kin.on.net/hogbay/hogbay1.htm
 
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http://kw.mtx.net/sawebring/sawebring.html