How can you tell when a swarm is imminent?

[@krankywitch]

What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon 😍 Thank you for sharing

[@jetblackstar]

Had the chance to observe two incoming swarms so far. I count it as some of the more special occasions in my life. A truly awesome sight.

[@emmamccarthy5235]

OMG! How amazing to watch. Thank you

[@Geraldine-cx3vy]

I like the way u stick to the natural basic ways of nature the old core of learning

[@Paulywarp]

Such a wonderful sight. I saw my very first swarm on the 3rd. I know have 3 occupied hives in just one week.

[@yannisconstantinides7767]

This footage is wonderful!! A smaller group seems to move at random, but with so many in the air you can see patterns emerge out of the negative space. It's clearly different from static

[@18Bees]

Nature is so beautiful.

[@dominiquelesbirel3259]

Glorious! Thanks for sharing.

[@fishmut]

Very nice to watch , spring started here in Australia beginning of September, some warm days and still cold and rainy other days , cold winds from the snow In Other areas in NSW , crazy weather pattern , I got boxes (nucs) ready to use this year and some boxes sitting on the cement outside, low and behold some bees have swarmed into a box but at first I thought they were robbing bees checking out for a feed, nope they were checking out there home they now have moved in. 👍 liked and subscribed.

[@garrybt1]

Creation right in front of your eyes. Brilliant I had the same experience in my apiary the other day 😀😀

[@MansfieldPestControl]

Fantastic, to witness, thanks.

[@josephinebaker3729]

Beautiful.

[@michaellyons5208]

You can see flight patterns in those thousands. Slow motion or freeze frames would look incredible. What a great moment.

[@TENDRIL77]

At least you were able to watch them. Mine mostly swarm when I am at work, and don't stay around even with swarm traps everywhere.

[@edavydenko2466]

How long before you noticed any investigation in your empty box? I have one empty and have about 20 bees around it and even some sitting by the entrance and cleaning each other. Since it is a top box, I was able easily and quick pick inside to see what is happening but only about 20 bees and no queen.

[@andrijatrinajstic6007]

This is the first time I saw a swarm move directly from the old colony into a new hive, without clustering in a tree. In fact I thought that scouting starts only when the swarm has left the old colony.

[@jimmyjapa6368]

I LOVE IT,, A LOT,,,,,,,

[@bengibbon9229]

Hi Phil, fantastic video, thanks for sharing. I had a phone call on the 25th April from a lady saying her bees had just swarmed, would I like the swarm? The swarm was a decent size and so I hived it in an 11 frame 14x12 brood box. On the 6th of May I had another call from the same lady to say her bees had just swarmed again, from the same hive, (she only has two). I turned up expecting a small cast, but when I got there the swarm was huge, even bigger than the last. I shook what I could into my 6 frame nuc and left it in place for the bees to gather into. I returned later that evening, around 7pm, and took the nuc away to another apiary where I transferred the six frames and bees into a full sized brood box. I’m not really sure what happened, but the lady is adamant that it was the same hive that swarmed, she said she watched it happen. What’s going on?

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

Two or more swarms can occur from the same hive.

[@mac243877]

Just finished basic beekeeping, bought two hives get my NYC’s in spring from mentor, question from a newbie, sorry, how long would that many bees be in a nuc

[@TeachaMantoFish]

It looks like the went into a smaller box. Why would they choose to do that?

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

Nobody knows...

[@dkraft]

its a smaller subset of the original hive.

[@davidianoliver]

I’ve had this level of activity around my swarm trap today.....no sign of a swarm yet, maybe tomorrow?

[@jetblackstar]

Probably Dave's projects. If your seeing that activity it can be a day or so ahead of a swarm arriving. My experience they often move in the afternoon. Although once had this much and they never showed. I'm guessing someone picked up the swarm.

[@davidianoliver]

@@jetblackstar yeah, they arrived soon after....then five more swarms arrived over about the next three weeks. Fantastic to witness

[@mihai.r-beekeeper5694]

Hi Phil. The bee family is checked every week. If he wants to swarm, you can make artificial swarms or destroy the future queen's nest. Very beautiful area.

[@stevenogborn5892]

Thank you Sir Philip. If Elton can get Knighted for his service. Why not you.

[@bobwebber8521]

Possibly it could be that their little tummy's are full of honey from the old hive to keep them going in the new site that they are so gentle and non stinging?

[@redrichard8443]

I've seen videos with scouts carrying pollen when scouting , at least they said they were scouts.

[@dalesman4530]

There’s a new attribute to select for: self split into close by nuc. Can I have some, please?

[@ScouseJack]

Amazing. I wonder what your electric field meter would have shown.

[@GeorgiKourtev]

Hi Phil, At what time during the day the swarm happened? Thanks.

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

It was about 2:30pm, I think. Swarms mostly seem to occur between midday and mid afternoon.

[@mrfender5001]

Did this happen on the 9th or 10th of May? Because I've got the same activitie around my swarm trap.

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

It's swarm season, for sure.

[@mrfender5001]

@@BarefootBeekeeper lol yup definitely!!

[@nuruzzaman4893]

I'm just so scared of the day this happens in the garden, due to how the neighbours will react. What would you all recommend before or during the swarming?

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

If you have nervous neighbours, you should probably make pre-emptive splits. Or show them this video...

[@nuruzzaman4893]

@@BarefootBeekeeperThanks for replying. I'm going to do carry out an artificial swarm this week. My first supers on both my hives are half full. Does putting on another super deter them from swarming?

[@conservativecoffee]

@@nuruzzaman4893 check for queen cells, if so check if they have larvae or capped. Now make sure the hive is queenright, if all is well you can do several things. You may cut out the cells, split the hive...basically the world is your oyster.

[@snugnodge]

No one told me being a new beekeeper could suck,, had five hives going into the winter, one died one is alright, bought two full hives second hand last September and now both suck and seems they were full of syrup instead of bees when I bought them but lessons learned. Then to really piss me off I was watching my strongest hive like a hawk and my best queen seems to have just got up and fkd off the day before I was going to split her hive and of course I can't get bees this year.. Other than that alls going well and I still haven't been put off but bugger me talk about a kick in the nuts

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

Nobody said beekeeping was easy... I hope!

[@snugnodge]

@@BarefootBeekeeper lol no but no pain no gain I suppose, just checked that hive again yesterday and she may have buggered off but she left a hive packed with brood with nearly ten viable cells so alls not lost.. Would it be possible or a daft idea to still split it using those cells in a few weeks or would that be daft. I was thinking of taking one split with cells and bees and leave the majority in the main hive.... I also had a dead out and an empty nuke box left close and she ignored both,,, ah well

[@conservativecoffee]

Is that a 5 frame nuc?

[@conservativecoffee]

@@snugnodge splits the hive before one of the other queen emerges. The first queen will kill the other possible queens. If you lucky you will have queen cells on different frames.

[@snugnodge]

@@conservativecoffee was thinking that,, no its a full national hive,,, i was thinking that, the cells are on different frames and one is loaded.. My plan now is use the queen in my other alright hive for a split. Ill give her a new home with three good frames of brood and supplies,,, I'll then take a good frame off cells from the hive that buggered off and put it into the one i remove the queen from,,, hopefully that works and if it does and the two new queen's are anywhere near as good as their mother I'll be happy,,,hopefully it works

[@jimmyjapa6368]

IMAGINE IF WE COULD MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD LOOKED LIKE THAT,,, ?