Buzzing Off - and On

Countryside Column for 30 May.

A Swarm in May is worth a Bale of Hay

It was so frustrating. The swarm of honeybees settled on inaccessible metal railings beside the house. What you hope is they will collect on an easy branch so you can place a cardboard box beneath them, carefully snip the branch and quickly cover the box with the bees inside.

  Then you prepare a new hive, upturn the box at its entrance and watch a little miracle occur. First one, then another, and finally a whole line of bees will emerge from beneath the box and, attracted by the smell of beeswax comb foundation in the hive, will walk up a ramp of wood or cardboard into their new home. Within an hour they’ll all have entered the hive with their queen, ready to start a new colony.

But you can’t snip a metal railing so there was nothing I could do but wait for the small swarm to fly off to find a new home. But they didn’t. Three days later they were still there. What was going on? When a swarm leaves a hive it normally settles nearby and sends out around 50 scout bees to find suitable permanent accommodation. The scouts return and do a modified waggle dance to tell the cluster where a prospective new home might be. The more enthusiastic the dance the better the prospect. Other scouts go off to check it.  When enough have agreed, they lead the entire swarm off. It’s an extraordinary ritual. But it wasn’t happening and they were in danger of starving. So I thought I’d help. I positioned a nucleus box with four frames of wax foundation upside-down over the cluster and hoped they would simply move up into it.  A few workers went to explore. I went off to do some gardening.

An hour later the sky was thick with bees and a loud buzzing filled the air. The ungrateful little insects had clearly ignored my offer and gone elsewhere.

The next day I was checking old hive parts stored round the back of the shed when what should I see but a stream of bees flying in an out of a spare hive.  The little darlings had eschewed my nuc box but settled into far superior accommodation nearby. The scouts had done their job well. Now I have to nurture the nascent colony and by next year they may provide honey for my tea.