Looking for help with a swarm that you have seen? CLICK HERE Beekeepers often take great care to avoid letting their bees swarm. To the beekeeper, a swarm represents a loss of bees resulting in less or no honey production and a reduced ability to over-winter colonies due to a smaller…
Stings
It is a simple fact that honey bees can sting. They don’t go out of their way to sting. They don’t intend to harass us and cause pain at the first opportunity. Honey bees sting usually in a selfless act of defence of their colony and occasionally as a self…
Honey Bee Disease
Just like any other member of the animal kingdom, honey bees have their fair share of ailments. There are too many possible diseases and ailments that can affect honey bees to list here, so this section gives a brief introduction to the main bee diseases. Dealing with bee disease has…
Honey Bee Sexes
Honey bee colonies are perennial in nature. They undergo an annual cycle based around the seasons however they persist in the hive year-on-year. This differs from similar creatures such as bumble bees and common wasps where the colony – in effect – collapses at the end of the season. Bumble bees and…
Honey Bee Species
There are almost 20,000 species of bees in the world which have been identified to date. Bees are close relatives of ants, wasp and hornets. One genus under which all honey bees fall, Apis, contains all the known species of honey bee forming at least 44 sub species. Bees in…
Honey Bee History
In this section we take a closer look at the the origins of the honey bee and beekeeping by humans.
Making up Nucleus Colonies
It is good beekeeping practice to make up a number of nucleus colonies each year. Important reasons for doing so include, raising replacement queens, swarm prevention, swarm control, making increase, queen introduction and selling nuclei. Here we take a look at how to make up a nucleus colony. Preparation Making…
The Demaree Method
A more extreme mechanism for preventing swarms is the Demaree method of swarm prevention. The method was first explained by George Demaree in an article in the American Bee Journal in 1884. This method is similar to most methods of artificial swarming in that it relies on separating the eggs…
Wakeford Method
This method is fully explained on the Dave Cushman website, but Richard has created a flow diagram version that can be taken hive-side.
Horsely Method
Developed by Yorkshireman Arthur Horsley, the board which carries his name is commonly used to control bees about to swarm. Similar in principle to the Snelgrove Method, the horsley board is often favoured over the latter because of it’s simpler design and method of operation. Like all other swarm control boards,…
Swarm Season is here!