I have two spots on the farm that I keep hives about 600 ft apart. Had pretty high mortality this winter but I noticed that bees started coming and going from one of my die-outs about three or four weeks ago. Not bringing pollen and there was no honey left in the hive. So a couple of days ago a swarm moved out of one of my locations 600 ft away and moved right into the hive.

My question is this: For the past weeks were scouts prepping this hive while they waited for a queen to hatch? A planned swarming?

They were not prepping it - just scouting it and found a vacancy. I had a swarm come out of a box today when I was working them and swirled around about 10 minutes and lit on the extremely weak hive next to where they left. I pulled a frame of brood and put it in there to hold them. Examined the box they left from and found 4 more queen cells - pulled two of those and put in a thrid hive. left two so they could supercede the swarmed queen.

Drove down the road to help Amish work his bees. He showed me his new swarm he just caught and I pointed out the queen and she was already laying. Went through another of his hives and it was loaded with 6-8 queen cells. So we split them and did a walk away split on that one. I told him to watch the original one - because several swarms might still come off it if the first queen doesnt rip down the remaining queen cells quick enough.

Got home and had another swarm hanging in my peach tree about 15 yards from my 20 nucs I am making up. Not sure yet where it came from but it filled another nuc box. Around me - its time for daily swarm walks.......

They were not prepping it - just scouting it and found a vacancy. I had a swarm come out of a box today when I was working them and swirled around about 10 minutes and lit on the extremely weak hive next to where they left. I pulled a frame of brood and put it in there to hold them. Examined the box they left from and found 4 more queen cells - pulled two of those and put in a thrid hive. left two so they could supercede the swarmed queen.

Drove down the road to help Amish work his bees. He showed me his new swarm he just caught and I pointed out the queen and she was already laying. Went through another of his hives and it was loaded with 6-8 queen cells. So we split them and did a walk away split on that one. I told him to watch the original one - because several swarms might still come off it if the first queen doesnt rip down the remaining queen cells quick enough.

Got home and had another swarm hanging in my peach tree about 15 yards from my 20 nucs I am making up. Not sure yet where it came from but it filled another nuc box. Around me - its time for daily swarm walks.......

I should add - you definitely need to go through the hives where you think the swarm came from and see what you have - could have a bunch of swarm cells and more swarms coming......or you may have nothing.....either way - they need worked.

Nailed it, scouts checking it out and reporting back.

If you want some interesting reading check out Tom Seeley's work on just how these scouts operate, report and how the recruitment and committee of the whole decides where to go.

I watched his video a year or so ago on bee-lining. Fascinating! He is a wise bee man.

I started as a 12 yo beeliner for a beekeeping neighbor.

That was 40 years ago.

Thanks for the advice guys. I find it hard to find the time to do the things I know I should be doing for the bees. All my regular farm work is in crisis mode to get done in time. Still, I entertain fantasies of becoming a wiser, more dedicated bee keeper some day. I've planted 3 more acres of rabbit eye blueberries with another to be planted this fall so with 6.5 acres of blues I really need to have at least 20 strong hives for pollination. Would rather have double that.

I have a few empty hives waiting on me to fill them with swarms. I was going to bait them like a swarm trap and see if I got lucky.

Well I got lucky but not like that. Caught 2 ball swarms today and have 2 in swarm traps ready to hive. Now I don't have any empty hives. A friend got one of the ball swarms from today.

Guess I should buy a few more hives. Good problem to have I guess.

I'm only up to 5 now. I hope they all do well. Not sure where my cut off point will be yet.

I've got about 13 hives set up. Overwintered 2 but am already up to 7 with captured swarms. I rent some bees (three pallets) for our blueberry pollination and always pick up some swarms from those as well. I have always offered to return them to the beekeeper but he says he would have lost them anyway so keep 'em.

I had two hives I caught last year and both made it through the winter well. I may want to pick your brain on blue berries sometime. We planted 4 varieties last year but only 26 plants do far. Some look good some not very good some died. I think I may try to propagate some more plants from the healthiest ones this year. The field they are in is about 4 acres so I could use a lot more plants.

I had a hive with swarm cells. I split them , took a frame of brood and bees, into two nucs. Saw a virgin queen the other day. My question. It is still cold here some days , don;t see any drone brood. How long can a virgin queen remain unmated, and still be good once mated.. Or at some point , will she be a dud.. Expect it will be a couple of weeks yet before our weather co operates. old243

Best advice I can give on the blueberries is test you soil and don't plant until you can get the pH down to 5.0 or lower. (It can take a year or more) You can do this with sulfur granules worked into the soil. Also work in copious amounts of aged sawdust or pine bark. About 4-5 inches deep. Hilling them up will also make for healthier root systems. Do all these things and you will have a good chance to be eating homegrown blueberries the rest of your life.