The Student becomes the Master

Last year I managed to interest my dad in the way of the bees.
Having kindly produced some new warré boxes for me I sent my dad back with a top bar bait hive to try out on the roof of his shed. lo and behold within a few days some bees turned up. These bees were passed on to a natural beekeeper in his area (250 miles to my apiary was a little too far).
This year he decided to knock himself up some warré boxes and put them on the roof of his shed to try his luck again. Following weeks of telephone conversations asking me about entrance sizes, lure types and amounts, the direction the hive should face and updates on "interest" from honey bees in the area this happened.

They moved in last monday just after my parents returned home from a weekend visit to me in Yorkshire. They look to be the same bee strain he caught last year so may well be from the same apiary and from the look of things almost certainly a prime swarm. It is still a little early for swarms in my area so I am in all honesty a little jealous. He is currently trying to decide how much management he would like to perform. He is considering running this as more of conservation hive but for the time being is just enjoying watching them fly.

Laying Workers: The Why, How, and Now what!

I have tinkering with this post on and off now for some months and cannot get it right. It just seems very meanderng and inconcise. Perhaps it's the "man-flu" speaking but I had enough of it. You can deal with it now.
From time to time a beekeeper will be faced with the question of whether or not a hive is queenless and ultimately do you have a laying worker. It can be difficult to tell the difference between a laying worker and a drone laying queen but generally your options are the same. Often these concerns are as a result of the colony swarming but occasionally a colony can suffer from "queen failure" or the queen can be lost or injured during an inspection (naughty beekeeper!).
When triggered by swarming, if you haven't seen the swarm leave hopefully you have at least seen queen cells. Sadly, even the most beautiful of queen cells can end in tragedy with the queen not returning or bad weather affecting mating. In the short term you will notice an increase in stores of honey and pollen as the bees with no/less brood to look after turn their attentions to foraging. You may well panic in this period as the amount of drone brood appears to increase, it probably hasn't. It could simply be due to the longer period of time it takes for any drones laid by the old queen to emerge. After all the worker brood has emerged there may well still be drone brood waiting around appearing as though it has increased because you notice it more.
Do not be in a rush! The quickest you can expect to have a laying queen from the point the swarm leaves is two weeks.
It can certainly take longer and if you keep disturbing them it is not helpful. Two week inspections should be sufficient.
Obviously the best test of whether a queen is present is to see her. However, not all of us have a good queen eye and often young queens are a little thinner and harder to spot. The next best thing is eggs. Occassionally, a new queen may lay more than one egg per cell to start with but she soons gets the hang of things. Many eggs laid haphazardly and even in cells containing pollen is a good sign of a laying worker.


The multiple eggs per cell seen when laying worker(s) are present.

Laying workers will also lay their eggs to the sides of a cell instead of in the bottom middle as their abdomens are shorter. This isn't always obvious to the new beeks eye so don't rely on it.
If you don't see the multiple eggs then often the way the capped brood is arranged can offer a clue.

Drone laying queen brood pattern. Domed brood in worker cell.

Again, laying workers are haphazard leaving large patches. Drone laying Queens give a better pattern but the cappings will be domed as in drone brood but laid in worker cells.
When queenless the bees do behave and sound very differently to how things are with a queen about. Over time working with bees with even realising it you will have developed an ear for the tone of a working hive. You probably won't even realise you know what it should sound like until it sounds....wrong! Rather than the many toned buzzing of a hive on task the buzz becomes low and monotonous. The bees themselves appear listless and easily provoked to sting.
Now what!
Well it really depends on the type of beekeeping you aspire to.
If you have laying workers that needs sorting first. There are two ways I know of to "deal" with laying workers. Fast and dirty, or slow and surely.
F&D
I have not done this but many swear by it. Shake out all the bees 100yds or so away from the hive. The idea is laying workers (having never left the hive) will not know their way back. Any foragers will be able to return since they recognise the area. Do this at a busy time of the day so the laying workers will be challenged should they attempt to enter another hive. Then try a queen fix below.
 S&S It is important to note that laying workers are NOT the result of absence of a queen, but the absence of brood. A subtle difference I know, but an important one. If a colony shows signs of laying workers weekly brood transfers from another hive... assuming you have one... will over time suppress the laying workers. Three or four weeks should see the colony building queen cups with the best of them.

New queen:
This is a relatively quick fix.... if you have spare queen. The queen will have to be properly introduced because even when queenless the colony will kill off a poorly introduced queen. If you have laying workers you must deal with them first as they will also kill a queen.
Combine:
If the colony is queenless you combine it with another... assuming you have one. This could be done with a newspaper combine for vertical hives, or using icing sugar to coat the introduced combs and bees in a kTBH.
Brood transfer:
Transfering young uncapped brood ...assuming you have some... will allow the colony raise a new queen. Take care they don't produce too many and swarm.

By the this time you may have noticed two things:
1 - Transfering young brood into the colony from another will fix the problem of laying workers AND queenlessness. It will even help you post swarm. Adding brood can stimulate a new well-mated queen to lay, and provides the colony with opportunities to replace her if poorly mated. It also stops you from having to bite your fingernails trying decide what, if anything, is wrong.
2 - If you only have one colony you're stuffed. The curse of the new beekeeper is that at a time when you need the most resource and have the least experience the reality is opposite. So, join forums, find mentors and seek out supportive associations.
There is always the option with your to allow 'nature to take its course'. I can certainly get on board with that philosophy and at times have applied. All I will say is that be wary of generating unnatural circumstances and leaving nature to sort it out. Sometimes she'll be able to sort it out on her own but don't count on it. Make sure for any manipulation you perform on your hive you are clear on:
a) What you want/expect to achieve (over and above not doing it).
b) You have considered what might happen if it doesn't work.
c) You have fall back plan and know what you want to do and how to do it.



Freebees

Well in the UK it is approaching that time of year when colonies may swarm. This starts in earnest in April and can continue until the end of July. In my area June is the month where it all happens. Swarms are the natural reproductive unit of a colony and are ready, willing, and able to develop a new colony. I will not discuss here the biology of a swarm only how to catch them!
Every year there is post after post of different forums about how to catch yourself a swarm so I thought I would save my keyboard the wear and tear and put it in one place.
Swarm trap or bait hive.
A minor distinction but for me a bait hive is a small hive that can function as such. A swarm trap will give the swarm a temporary location but quickly needs moving to a hive. Any move you make of a swarm prior to brood being present may lead to them absconding. Where possible I recommend using a bait hive. If you have empty hives it is all worth baiting them for swarms just in case.

 

Flower pot bait hive on the roof of Brinscall hall.

Warré style - two warré boxes with the bars not in the bottom box. I recommend a flat roof for ease of movement. You must be sure the floor, boxes, and roof stay together so clips and/or reliable hive straps are a must.
National style - a single brood box is sufficent again with a simple roof and all components well secured.
TBH style - This is much easier equipment wise as any container that will recieve approx. 8-12 topbars can be a perfectly good bait hive. I have made these from polystyrene shipping boxes and plant pots. The fact that the top bars can be removed and placed in a hive with the bees in-situ is very handy. I would say that it doesn't take much longer to make a bait hive that works well as a nucleus hive for splits, transport, or mating. Do NOT forget if you intend to leave the bees in there for more than a week to have a follower board or spacer bar so you can still manipulate the bars.

15 bar Topbar bait hive/nuc made from old shipping pallets.

So to the matter at hand, the attracting of a swarm of bees. I will list below, categorised of course, elements which increase your chances of catching a swarm. Ultimately if there are more swarms than containers to house them then you'll will them is nearly anything.
Size
20-40 litres in volume. This is two warré boxes, one national or langstroth brood, 8-12 bars kTBH. Prime swarms will want more space than cast swarms. I have had a cast swarm enter a single warré box (~18 l) that wasn't even nailed together properly.
Placement
I believe 2 metres from the ground is ideal in a location where there is a supply or nectar, water, and propolis. In reality a height you can comfortably reach is MUCH more sensible. It is useful having the bait hive higher eg shed roof, but more so that no one can inadvertently walk into the bees flight path. You will need to have the permission of the land owner and prepare to loose the odd piece of equipment to thieves. I would also suggest it isn't to far from a road. If you think the bait hive it heavy now wait until it's full of unsettled bees!
Entrance
The bees do not care what shape their entrance is. Through experimentation I have found a single entrance with 1 inch diameter works very well. Anything bigger becomes difficult to defend, anything smaller inconvenient. If you wish then you can fit a mesh floor so the bees don't overheat in transport but this must be covered over to attract a swarm in. The darker the better, oddly damp doesn't bother them. The entrance should face south or southest (ish). It is not essential for direction but make sure there isn't a strong wind blowing into the entrance.
Attractant
There are lots of commercially available swarms attractant but they really aren't that necessary. If the box has had bees in before ie coated with propolis etc and smells of bees then this is enough for then. Other things that help are a piece of old brood comb (the darker the better) and a few drops of lemon grass oil (LGO) at the entrance. Use sparingly as too much LGO can put them off. Two drops once every two weeks in more then enough. You can also put some on cotton wool in a zip lock plastic bag left bearly open inside the hive. It is not as good as old brood comb and propolis but as a new beekeeper you won't have that. It that case rub the inside walls of the hive with beeswax too.
Now just wait...... if you can take a look during the day then it is fun to see scout bee interest increasing. If not then a sharp knock in the evening or checking its weight will tell you if you have new tenants. Do not open it until you're sure they have moved in. If you disturb scout bees they're unlikely to return.
If you're lucky enough to see the swarm arrive it is very exciting. Finding bees already there is a close second. It's something like a cross between catching a fish and opening a present. Best of luck!

Accidental Warré Update

Over a bank holiday weekend where Yorkshire hosted an amazing first Tour de Yorkshire bike race (woo... go Wiggins), my daughter got scarlet fever, and I failed to get anything done other than eat and drink. I did get the chance to visit the bees on a small respite from the rain.

So last year in June a tiny caste swarm moved into an old box in my apiary. The box is deralict with the side not meeting properly and more hole than the proverbial sieve. This swarm was very small and although it managed to just about fill the box did nothing more that year. They refused to grow into the a box below deciding instead to stay put. I at least gave them a decent quilt and roof and offered them my best wishes. Against all odds they managed to make it through (an albeit mild) Yorkshire winter which managed to be the downfall of larger colonies. This a brief video of them:

Good work little bees!