Swarm Data - April 2015

My local bee club, Portland Urban Beekeepers, recently partnered up with Honey Bee Allies to provide a swarm hotline and easier-to-use swarm list for Portland, Oregon. We've had the hotline in place for a month now and having great success with it. One of the great things about it is being able to collect swarm call data.

Time to get geeky with numbers. Below is a little something I threw together to show swarm activity vs weather.

Data:

SwarmDate	# swarms	pressure (inHg)	pressure (amp)	rain (mm)	max temp (C)
4/1/2015	2	30.29	10.3	4.8	12.8
4/2/2015	1	30.39	11.1	2.8	14.4
4/3/2015	0	30.29	10.3	0.0	14.4
4/4/2015	2	30.15	9.2	4.8	13.3
4/5/2015	2	29.84	6.7	0.0	15.6
4/6/2015	2	29.79	6.3	3.0	15.6
4/7/2015	2	29.78	6.2	0.5	15.0
4/8/2015	4	29.99	7.9	0.5	15.0
4/9/2015	7	30.12	9	0.0	18.3
4/10/2015	2	29.96	7.7	0.0	18.9
4/11/2015	0	29.96	7.7	6.9	16.1
4/12/2015	0	30.22	9.8	1.0	14.4
4/13/2015	2	30	8	0.0	15.0
4/14/2015	2	30.22	9.8	8.4	13.3
4/15/2015	0	30.49	11.9	8.6	15.0
4/16/2015	10	30.36	10.9	0.0	22.2
4/17/2015	16	30.18	9.4	0.0	22.8
4/18/2015	12	30.25	10	0.0	24.4
4/19/2015	8	30.13	9	0.0	25.0
4/20/2015	10	29.91	7.3	0.0	27.2
4/21/2015	9	29.9	7.2	0.0	27.2
4/22/2015	1	30.18	9.4	0.0	16.7
4/23/2015	0	30.03	8.2	0.0	16.1
4/24/2015	0	29.87	7	1.8	13.3
4/25/2015	0	29.94	7.5	4.6	16.7
4/26/2015	0	30.14	9.1	1.0	16.7
4/27/2015	9	30.2	9.6	0.3	27.2
4/28/2015	3	29.92	7.4	0.0	27.2

I wasn't sure which variable would correlate best to swarming behavior, so I included barometric pressure, precipitation, and maximum temperature in the data set. To get the pressure to show up on the chart as anything other than a nearly straight line I applied an amplifier to it (inHG-29)*8. This makes the changes in pressure show up much better as a nice wiggle on the chart below.

It looks like there's a strong correlation between warm, dry weather and swarming. (Is that a big surprise to anyone?) Not much of a correlation with barometric pressure. Swarming is happening whether the pressure is rising or falling.

But there is something interesting happening with the rain.

A huge spike in swarms at the beginning of a long dry spell. Are the bees sensitive enough to weather patterns to know when there will be a long period of time to set out and find a new home? Or is this explained simply by the much higher temperatures?

Of course, experienced beekeepers around here are well aware of this pattern. It's just interesting to see it in chart form.

Swarm #1 for 2015 - Apr 9, 2015

Got my first swarm of the season. We're having a very early spring and swarm season is well underway. Lots of swarming. This is my 3rd call this week, but the first one I could actually take. These were some good looking bees. Very eager to work. And in the 4 hours they were in the box they already started to put wax on the underside of the lid.

It felt like about 4 pounds of bees

That bush they were on was very thorny and it took a bite out of my hand. The neighbor that called the swarm hotline told me someone else was planning to light a fire and douse the bees with a hose. Ugh! Fortunately smarter heads prevailed and they called in a beekeeper.

Labeled appropriately of course

Unfortunately, these bees were collected near a very agricultural area. Which means they probably came from a farmer's hive. I could also tell that they weren't a "wild" swarm since I found no drones among them. Why would this be a bad thing? Because there's a good chance they may be dependent on chemical treatments for survival. And I don't do that. So it should be interesting to see if they can survive the winter. I'll take mite counts on them this summer and see how they look.

Varroa Mite Counts - Bee Vlog - Aug 15, 2014

Getting some mite counts on 6 of my hives: 3 survivors from last year and 3 new swarms from this year. I'll be joining other beekeepers in my local community on a "citizen science experiment/survey" to try to better understand how to help the bees in our area. It's a long term study that will take the next 6-8 months to complete, since winter survival is the final judging criteria for success.

In this video I show the first stage of getting a baseline mite reading with a sticky board. I coated the corrugated plastic boards with petroleum jelly then let them sit under the screen for 24 hours.

Mite count results:
Elizabeth: 14
Helen: 69 (50 is considered to be the treatment threshold here)
Jezebel: 21
Karma: 7
Louise: 3
Natalia: 0

Queen Helen origin video
Finding Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus


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Varroa Destructor

Immature Varroa mite

Bee compound eye

Bee ocelli (simple eye)

Laying workers - Bee Vlog - Aug 2, 2014

When I was reviewing video footage I found a segment where we actually get to see a worker entering a cell to lay an egg.


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There are a few ways of dealing with laying workers. Due to the season it's too late to have them try to raise another queen. There just isn't enough time remaining where drones will be available to mate. So, it seems the only other option is to shake them out. Most of the bees will reintegrate into one or both of the other hives.


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Small Honey Harvest - Bee Vlog - Aug 2, 2014

Queen Elizabeth swarmed during the peak of the nectar flow, so the harvest wasn't very great. I reduced the hive in preparation for winter. They were left with plenty of honey and the new queen looked like she was doing great.

Queen Elizabeth's Origin


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Safety Cone Swarm - Bee Vlog - Jul 11, 2014

There was a swarm at my neighborhood park that looked like it decided to move into a safety cone. A very easy swarm catch. They were already in a "bucket" waiting for me to just dump them into the hive.


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Swarm Trap Success! - Bee Vlog - Jun 14, 2014

It worked! I get more excited about catching swarms in a trap than I do when I chase them and catch them manually. It takes a little more preparation, but it's so much easier. And when it works it's very validating. They actually chose to live in a box I built for them!


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Here's the video showing how I built the traps.

Transferring Bee Hives - Bee Vlog - Jun 5, 2014

A super fun day hanging out on the FreshP homestead. In this video I show the process of moving and transferring a hive. A typical process when installing a nuc (nucleus hive).

This swarm was caught 5 weeks ago and has been living in this 10-frame medium box and growing very nicely.

If moving the hive to a new location you can let the bees get to know the new place before making the transfer. That way, the move is less confusing for the bees. You can let them re-orient to the new home for a day or 2, or even 45 minutes if you can't wait that long.


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In this video, FreshP and I talk about prepping the hive bodies:


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And in this video FreshP shows how to make some really awesome lip balm:


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Swarm #2 for 2014 - Bee Vlog - Apr 29, 2014

This swarm was in the same location as the one from yesterday, but was just easier to get to. I think there were actually 2 swarms in this tree, unfortunately I wasn't able to catch it on video. While gathering the cluster that was on the low branches I saw another cluster up on the top of the tree. At first I thought the queen had flown up there and they regrouped on the other branch. So I snipped it down and added it to the box. I saw the queen and promptly caged her.

Later when I got the box home I heard piping coming from the box - a sound queens make, usually before they do battle. When I put them in the hive all seemed just fine, and I kept the queen caged up. A couple hours later I went to go see how they were doing and I found a dead queen that had been ejected from the hive.

Later in the evening when I went into the hive to release the queen from the cage I found that she had already been released. I think I might have accidentally let it pop open when I was trying to push it into place in the comb.

So now I'm thinking there were 2 (or more queens). But I can't be sure until I get back into it and look for a queen in a few more days.


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Swarm #1 for 2014 - Bee Vlog - Apr 28, 2014

My first swarm of the 2014 beekeeping season! It was in a tough location, but with the help of my friend Don we were able to get them into the box. The queen was flying around and didn't want to settle in. I wished that I packed my queen clip because I had many opportunities to catch her.


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CCD or Abscond? - Bee Vlog - Apr 10, 2014

I got a call that there was a swarm by one of my beehives today. When I got there the swarm had moved on, but I found that my bees had either absconded, or fell victim to the mysterious CCD. Was it my bees in the swarm? If so, why would they abscond and leave the queen behind? They seemed fine a month ago with pollen coming in. Very strange.


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Swarm traps are done - Bee Vlog - Apr 5, 2014

I'm building my swarm traps out of medium 5-frame nuc boxes this year so that they can be more than just a single-use piece of equipment. Here's the video where I built the boxes.

Half of the swarm traps have been painted on the inside with a propolis wash. It was very easy to do. Just dissolve some propolis with grain alcohol, paint inside the box and let it dry. All of the traps are baited with 2-3 drops of lemongrass oil and have a frame with drawn brood comb. No honey, to avoid attracting ants.

Now it's time to get those traps out there! If you build it, they will come.



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Bee Vlog - July 28, 2013

I attended a treatment-free beekeeping conference at Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR. This was the first year this particular conference was put on and I'd say it was a big success. It was great to hear some lectures and have workshops with some experts in the field, as well as meet and network with other beekeepers from all over the US, Canada, and even as far as New Zealand!

This video is broken up into 3 parts. The first was a mini-workshop on swarms, taught by Dr Tom Seeley (auther of "Honeybee Democracy"). The 2nd part features some musical selections performed by Timothy Sellers from Artichoke. The 3rd part was a queen grafting workshop taught by Melanie Kirby from Zia Queenbee.

There were also lectures from Dr. Seeley, Dr. Deborah Delaney, Kirk Webster, Dr. Sujaya Rao, Eliese Watson, Dr. Lynn Royce. And workshops taught by Les Crowder and Matt Reed. I didn't get any video of any of the lectures or other workshops, but I'll update this post with links to videos other people put online as they get posted.

Dr. Tom Seeley - Honeybee Democracy (video by beethinking)
Dr. Deborah Delaney - The Sustainability of Honeybees (video by beethinking)


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Bee Vlog - July 6, 2013

I relocated my newest swarm, Queen Jezebel, to another yard. When I moved the hive I found a lot of dead workers piled up under the screened bottom board. Some still dying. Then this morning I saw more dead workers all around the hive, and witnessed some pretty aggressive behavior before and after I opened them up to add a second box. They were not aggressive with me...just each other.

This was a swarm I caught 2 weeks ago and they've been so crowded (thus...the addition of the 2nd box) I wondered if that has contributed to their attitude. But after showing the battle in this video to some other beeks, 2 possible hypotheses have emerged. 1) It's a robbing. 2) This swarm had 2 (or more) queens and the bees are at war to choose a winner (or a victor has emerged and the losers are being exiled).

The first one seems most likely, but weird given the fact that the same thing was happening in both locations. And, while it has some similarities, this doesn't look like a textbook robbing. So I like the 2nd hypothesis. During and after the inspection I got the vibe that there were 2 warring factions living in the same hive. But you'd think this kind of situation would have already been worked out. My personal 3rd hypothesis is that, as we enter a time of dearth this over populated hive can't feed everyone so some bees have got to go. Either way, this footage is getting archived for future reference.


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**UPDATE** Things settled down a bit after a couple of hours. Still some wrestling, but not as much activity. The next day everything looked normal. Typical foraging activity with pollen coming in.

Bee Vlog - June 29, 2013

While out inspecting hives I got word of a swarm just about a mile away. A quick and easy catch. I didn't keep this one. Gave it to a friend who was wanting to get a swarm.


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I've been wanting to install quilt boxes on my hives for a while now, but never found or created a design I liked...until now. One of the common problems I was seeing around the quilt box in general is trying to prevent the bees from chewing through the cloth. I think I may have solved it, but only time will tell. Queen Catherine and Guinevere get the quilts.

Oh my! Queen Catherine is bulging at the seams and needs a 4th box ASAP. I just finished a couple boxes but they still need paint. I can barely keep up with the equipment demands!

I also built more top entrances and installed them on 2 of the larger hives (Beatrice & Flora). When I used an entrance like this last summer I found that the bees used them more for ventilation on hot days than actual egress.

Checked up on Queen Elizabeth to see if they might have too much room. They've filled out box #1 about 80%. Box #2 isn't getting used for brood or honey yet. But there are plenty of bees and they seem to be working on it to get it cleaned up and ready for use. So I left the configuration as-is.

Queen Isabella got her first inspection. Last weekend, after moving them out to the new location and leaving them locked up for 3 days they were very angry and attacked me when I set them free last Monday. So they've had the week to cool off and they seem to be doing fine now. Box #2 is full and is being used for all the brood and food at the moment. But there are bees working on the comb in Box #1.


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Bee Vlog - June 24, 2013

A swarm call was posted up on Facebook and after seeing that it was located just around the corner from my house I just had to take it.

This swarm has been sitting in the tree looking for a home for 3-4 days. I should have taken that into consideration before shaking them out of the tree. I've dealt with swarms before in this fashion with no problems whatsoever, but this one was less tolerant and I took quite a few stings on my arms and hands. Because of this, I'm naming this one Queen Jezebel.


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Bee Vlog - May 1, 2013

An easy swarm catch, in the same neighborhood as the 2nd swarm I collected (Queen Dulce). So I wonder if they're coming from the same hive, or a different hive from the same beekeeper.


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Bee Vlog - April 26, 2013

I got a swarm call that sounded too difficult to get (40 feet up a tree) so I passed on it. But I spread the word to a few other lists I know of. After I got off work I stopped by to see if someone had come to get it or if it moved on. When I got there I found that the home owner had contacted someone else who was willing to give it a try. They had an extension ladder leaning against the tree and were using a very long fishing net to scoop up the bees.

It turns out the home owner who called was the beekeeper who's bees had swarmed. He wasn't interested in having a 2nd hive so he didn't want to collect the swarm. But the beekeeper who answered the call had lost all 3 of his hives over winter, so he was starting over again. It looked like a lot of work trying to scoop up those bees and putting them in a hive body, so I was content with just observing.

There were still a lot of bees on the branch when I arrived, but within a couple minutes they all took off. At first they flew out over some neighbor houses and trees. We thought they were leaving for sure. We went around to the street to see what direction and how far they had gone, but then we noticed they were returning and were descending on the hive body.

I think they took off, then realized the queen wasn't with them so they headed back. When they got back they caught the "homing scent" down in the hive and moved right in. It was spectacular to watch the cloud moving like that.


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Queen Beatrice
It's been a month since Queen Beatrice's last inspection. I needed to see how well they've been filling out the frames, check for queen cells, and see if they need more room. They had fully filled out all the new frames from last time so I added another box. The bottom box was getting filled with honey, so I moved it up to the top (under the new empty super).

They were pretty calm and tolerant of my "invasion" during most of the inspection. It wasn't until the end they became more defensive. A couple guard bees really started warning me and trying to push me back by buzzing at my face. Not bumping, just taking a defensive posture. I think it was because I was rushing things a little too much. It was late in the day, I hadn't eaten dinner yet, so I was hungry and trying to get through it as fast as possible. Because of my rush I was probably crushing more bees than I should while putting the boxes back together and my movements were probably less than fluid.


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Queen Catherine
When we did the cut-out on this hive we secured the comb into the frames with rubber bands. Now that the comb has been braced by the bees we can cut out the bands. We tried being gentle and carefully remove the bands, but that wasn't as easy as we thought. It's also less gentle than you'd expect. We tried gently breaking the bands, but that's also not easy or gentle. It turns out, that just cutting them is the quickest, easiest, and actually most gentle way of doing it. Do some bees get flicked by the rubber bands in the process? Probably, but it's much less harmful than the squishing and rolling that was happening with our other clumsy methods.


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Bee Vlog - April 25, 2013

It's a waiting game, and you never know what kind of luck you'll have with it, but bait hives are really the easiest way to get a swarm. You set it up, walk away, and hope the bees move in. And if they do the only work that's left is to move them to a hive.

I hung this up last year, but I think I did it too late. This past week there have been a lot of swarms in the area, and my bait hive was getting a lot of attention for the past few days. Some very strange behavior. Fighting and battles at the entrance. In hind sight, I think a group of bees were staking a claim to the hive and keeping other "intruders" from getting in. It was pretty interesting to watch.

I'm a little disappointed that I was at work and didn't get to see the swarm moving in. But the satisfaction of such an easy catch makes me quickly get over it.


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Bee Vlog - April 24, 2013

Another pretty easy swarm catch. This one was about 5 feet up the trunk of a tree. Fortunately the tree was young and flexible enough that I could just shake it. At one point the bees were marching into the box from the trunk, but then they started marching from the box up the tree again (the camera was off when that happened so it wasn't caught on video). I had to get a turkey feather and try to sweep them off the tree into the box. This was more difficult than it sounded due to the nature of this tree, but we eventually got the majority of them into the box.

No queen was sighted, but the way the bees were behaving leads me to believe we got her. I'll know better next week when I pay them a visit. But regardless, this is Queen Dulce.


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