BEE-L Archives

Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

BEE-L@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 18 Apr 2014 19:37:27 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (27 lines)
Peter wrote: "we are already starting to find swarm preparations in 
some hives - incredibly early for this area."

A friend near Cambridge has taken a large swarm and lost one also.  I 
found, here in Dorset, an empty hive that I was tidying up had bees in 
a few days ago.  When I examined it I found insufficient comb for a 
colony to have overwintered; fresh comb followed the slope of the hive 
which was askew. There was sealed brood, including 1 drone cell, which 
I uncapped to look for Vd and found it still at the pre-pupal stage so 
I concluded that that swarm had moved in at least 10 days earlier ie, 
during the first week in April.

In over 35 years of beekeeping, the earliest swarm I have been involved 
with was 24th April and the latest 4th September. The graph has a very 
sharp peak in the 3rd week in May.

So this year is already uusual and should prove interesting.

Chris

  

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

ATOM RSS1 RSS2