The first swarm came into the garden on Saturday 20 March 2021. One day earlier than our first swarm last year. I do not know where it came from but it was not one of ours. We had divided our largest hive “Poppy” and put on a super. We did wonder If she could have swarmed but she is happily filling the super at this moment and the others are not ready yet.
We were happy to give this swarm a home.
The swarm had landed not too high on a cotoneaster and Kourosh held the hive under the swarm and I shook the bees into the hive. We added frames and placed it on a sheet to encourage any stragglers to crawl in.
Job done! Time for a cold drink and self-congratulations.
When we returned to check on the hive it appeared that all the bees were not in agreement of staying in their new home. We had to collect them in the bucket and pour them into the opened hive.
After a few more disagreements they gave up and settled in.
This is our friends’ hive so we put it in an outbuilding in the dark for two nights before we took them to our friends’ nearby hive area very early in the morning. Kourosh opened their entrance later in the morning and they have accepted their new home graciously.
The star of the garden at the moment is our flowering cherry “Accolade”. O.K. it isn’t very big but its our first flowering cherry and it is only its second year in the garden.
You really need to get a bit closer to appreciate the flowers.
Just beautiful!
The bees are in total agreement with our choice.
Talking of bees, I saw two carpenter bees mating holding onto the petals of the leucojum. I cannot remember seeing them mating before.
Yesterday I noticed a strange circle showing in the grass of our front lawn. Aliens? Fungal disease?
No, it was only Kourosh cutting the grass but not having the heart to mow down all the Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) flowers !
a french garden 
I was loudly admiring my neighbours violets growing in his lawn in the hope that he would spare them too when mowing!
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This is a year for violets. We have got lots of them growing throughout the garden. Amelia
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I’m with Kourosh–I couldn’t mow them down, either. So interesting that you have swarms so early. We don’t get them until June, and then, oddly, the first week of August.
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Every year is different and this year was a mild winter. This is about the earliest you would get swarms in our mild weather region but it will continue on until, perhaps June. Amelia
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Hello Amelia,
Amazing that your bees are swarming so early, but then this is clearly normal for you, and confirms how lovely your weather must be! I loved the fact that they exited the hive again so quickly but you eventually got them settled in, and safely rehomed – well done. Interesting extended shape on the tree trunk too,
best wishes
Julian
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This is, within a few days, the earliest date you could expect a swarm here. We always try and insert an old frame in the hive or nuc to make them feel at home once they are inside. Amelia
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Hey well done, until I read that your swarm is on about the same date as last year I thought all was a bit early this year. A friend of mine yesterday told me he had caught 5 swarms already. The other interesting thing is that I have noticed swarms ( apparently from somewhere else (( I.e. not from your hives))) appearing in the same place in following years. I have seen this happen here. I have also read somewhere that the bees somehow have a collective memory and do swarm to the same place, say a year later. Amazing but the evidence seems to be there.
Any way thank you both for your site and great photos and I am about to do some serious swarm preventing and set out a ruchette to tempt any swarm into it rather than a high tree !
Good luck
Michael
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This is my personal thought – the ruchette piege attracts the eclaireuse who bring the swarm nearby as perhaps a first step. This is because I have noticed a few days of high activity around a ruchette piege before a we get a swarm. After we catch it the activity calms down again. I noticed in BBKA News (March 2021) that Wally Shaw wrote an article on Swarm Composition with the Pagden method. He was rather scathing about writers not being clear on the success rate of this method and says he has a 50% success rate with it. Interesting. Amelia
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Amelia,
I think there is a certain logic there as one can’t watch our friends all the time so we cant be certain. There must be so many swarms that escape our notice. Last year for example, I saw two swarms ( I go to see them once a week) I collected one the other was too high. As a result I carry our very early and active swarm control. I divide them and create more colonies rather than find them swarm and take a long time . One must bear in mind that if a colony swarms it will probably set of a number of secondaries. This simply makes the main colony so weak it will never produce any honey as it will take a long time in prime season to recover. So I think it is better to control swarms by moving frames around or dividing the colony to stop the swarming.
Michael
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A bee in the hand is worth two in the bush?
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Lovely photos of the swarm and the carpenter bees! So is Kourosh practising ahead of creating guerilla crop circles?
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Don’t say anything but it does look a bit suspicious. Amelia
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This is the first Spring in our new garden, and a couple of weeks ago I spotted a green-winged orchid. I thought, what luck! Since then, they have popped up all over the garden, even among the fruit trees I planted in January. So now I am in total mowing paralysis – which is not such a bad thing. When they die back I will select areas of the garden to mow, for walking on, and leave areas for the wild flowers – unless the next orchid species arrives…..
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Last year was an abundant orchid year in this area and the weather has been very similar so it looks like you are in for a treat. It also reminds me that it is time for a visit to a nearby protected site to see the early orchids. Amelia
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Well done Kourosh.
I am always surprised to read that you have had swarms in March. Here in the UK May and June tend to be the swarming months.
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I think the bees follow the availability of pollen and nectar and here there are a lot of early flowering trees like willow and sloe. Amelia
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Hurrah for bees! The flowering cherry are lovely.
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Thank you :). Amelia
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I love your crop circle! Thank you for the description of the bees –fantastic.
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Thank you, I’ll tell Kourosh. :). Amelia
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Bees will leave without the queen?
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The bees come with their queen looking for a new place to live. They have already left a new born queen in their prior home. Amelia
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So the queen was not confined to the box when the swarm left?
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The swarm protects the queen and they would be lost without her – if say a bird ate her. This is the way honeybees reproduce. They live only in colonies with one queen who in the spring produces a new queen leaving her the old colony and setting of with a group of the honeybees to found a new colony i.e. one honeybee colony becomes two.
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Yes, but if the queen is confined to the box, why was so much of the swarm outside without her?
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Neither the queen not any of the bees are confined to the box ever. The box is totally open and the bees free to come and go. It is their home and they choose to live there. The new queen only leaves to be fertilised then stays at home laying eggs all her life, unless she swarms to found a new colony. She leaves when the colony chooses to swarm.
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What a thrilling adventure! Not being a beekeeper, this is all new to me. I did see a swarm fly over our property once. And there was a wild hive for several years in a eucalyptus tree near our place. Another time, I saw a swarm that had landed on a neighbors pine, and took up residence there. I look forward to learning more about bees from your blog. Beautiful flowering cherry!
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I had never seen a swarm before I lived in France. It is an exhilarating experience. I love all the bees in our garden. Amelia
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A beautiful cherry and great for your bees too!
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It’s our first ornamental cherry and we are both very taken with it. Amelia
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