Tim said:
So now I'm sitting with hives (in those locations without irrigated
farmland or landscaping) with large populations and not much to forage,
which is the next problem I'll have to address.

Welcome to the world of pollination and larger scale beekeeping!

When beekeeping on permanent locations year after year one learns the
beekeeping methods which will help prevent swarming such as how much feed to
give, when to open the brood nest and if to split to prevent swarming etc.

When hives come back from pollination they can be ready  to "hit the trees"
or starving. Migratory pollination beekeeping is by far harder than keeping
bees on permanet locations for the above stated reasons.

When beekeepers get more hives than they or their employees can manage I
have seen hives which came out of pollination with so many swarms hanging in
the trees around the yard you could start a new apiary.

 I have also seen whole yards with over half deadouts after pollination when
the bees were not fed  after pollination and the beekeeper only assumed the
bees had returned  with plenty of honey.

I have seen over a hundred hives which had starved when the beekeeper moved
those hives in on Blue Vine (with MT supers) and the crop was a complete
failure even though the crop had produced a crop every year  ever since the
beekeeper had been moving bees in. The hives were not looked at for around
two months.

None of the above has happened to me personally but I hear the stories and
have seen the deadouts.

Bob

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