This weather making it difficult to predict swarm
season for SW Pennsylvania.  

Typically, swarming begins here about the first week in May.
Last season, a warm spring, swarming began during the last week in April.

Rain seems to make little difference in regards to buildup
prior to swarming, -perhaps strong colonies able to swarm
early have reserves to build up and so forth.

However this season, a 4 week late spring and 4 week
late tree bloom might not have a drastic effect on swarming times.
BUT I am concerned about the cooler than normal 
spring, hindering foraging and perhaps causing 
cluster contraction and doing possible harm to 
broodnest expansion.

Its weird how weather can delay tree bloom by several 
weeks, but dandelion and low lying blooms and such are 
only about a week late.

I did notice a sure fire indicator which generally precedes
the commencement of swarming season by about 3 weeks.
I noticed 2 scouts house hunting during the middle of April,
this is about 1 or 2 weeks late, but the weather has 
been cool limiting good flying days.  These 'pre-swarming 
season scouts'  which distinguish themselves by 
seeming more inquisitive in nature, generally begin
investigating about 3 weeks prior to the start of prime 
swarming season.  

I am getting bee removal calls from panicked homeowners,
which is a good indication of a good strong strong buildup. 
  
So I placed my bets on swarming staring here in SW Pennsylvania
the week of May 6,,, It MUST start then, cause thats when I 
scheduled several weeks vacation for bee removal.  ;)

Joe Waggle
Pennsylvania 
https://www.facebook.com/Historical.Honeybee.Articles 

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