The season in which we expect swarms to issue from colonies has arrived, says Ethel Irvine of Fermanagh Beekeepers' Association.

In her monthly report, she said; "After the exceptionally dry, sunny weather of April, when bee colonies built up very quickly after the winter, beekeepers were expecting a rush of early swarming. While a few swarming colonies have been reported in the county on our WhatsApp, there have not been as many as expected.

To give a little background on swarming, it is the only method which colonies have to reproduce themselves and occurs when up to half the colony, accompanied by the queen, leaves the hive to set up home in a new area. The part of the colony left behind will complete the rearing of a new young queen, see that she gets mated, starts to lay and this new colony will forage for itself so that it can survive. So, now there are two colonies where there was only one previously. Easy, isn’t it? It would be if the beekeeper did not want to get a crop of honey from his bees but if he loses half of them, he loses about half his honey as well. In addition, swarms are can be a nuisance to the general public especially with the lockdown this spring.

Beekeepers will have been examining the brood nets of their colonies once every two weeks but as soon as drone cells are found, these examinations must increase in frequency. If the queen is not clipped, once per week is recommended but if her wings are clipped, this can be extended to every nine or 10 days. These timings are based on the time needed to produce a sealed queen cell ie. eight days from the egg is laid until the queen cell is sealed.

Without a queen the colony is doomed. The observant beekeeper may notice scout bees out searching for a suitable new location for the swarm long before it is ready to leave and they may choose the bait hive which the beekeeper has prepared with old brood comb and lemongrass oil and has set at a distance from the apiary, about three metres from the ground, but generally it is the discovery of queen cells with royal jelly and well-developed larvae in them which alerts the beekeeper to the possibility of the imminent loss of up to half his foraging force.

Queens reared from older larvae will not have been fed royal jelly for the correct length of time, which results in poor queens, known as scrub queens. Appositely, these first swarm cells are the best that the colony will produce, should be cherished and used in the make-up of nuclei if an expansion in colonies is desired.

Action has to be taken to satisfy the urge to swarm and this involves making the bees believe that they have swarmed. For those who are not familiar with the ‘Artificial Swarm Control’ method, there is no better detailed description than that given in Ted Hooper’s ‘Guide to Bees and Honey’.

In short, when advanced queen cells are found in parent colony, move the parent colony on its floorboard 0.6m (2ft) to one side, place new floorboard on old site, then a brood box with 10 frames foundation or drawn comb on top, go back to parent brood box, find frame with queen on it, remove queen cells from this frame (having made sure there are other good queen cells in the colony}, place this frame in the centre of the new brood box, add queen excluder, supers, crownboard and roof. Go back to parent brood box, remove all sealed queen cells, add crown board with rapid feeder (empty) and roof. Feed in evening (thin syrup) and leave strictly alone for one week. A swarm consists of the queen and the flying bees and this is what you have put into the empty box since all flying bees will return to the original site. You (hopefully) have fooled them into believing they have swarmed! A word of warning – don’t feel sorry for the old queen and give her two frames of brood, as in nature, the swarm settles in its new home with no brood at all. After one week, check colony with queen for queen cells. Move parent colony to 0.6m on the other side of the ‘swarm’ so that any bees which have begun to forage from this box in the past week will return, find no hive and go into the nearest hive i.e. join the old queen and augment forager numbers. They will be welcome since they come bearing gifts. The other hive need not be opened until after a further week when the queen cells should have hatched and the virgin queens will have sorted out which one lives to head the new colony.

At the moment, bees are foraging near and wide and bringing in a mixture of nectars and pollens. Observing directions of flight and working out where they are finding food is all part of our enjoyment and it is enhanced by watching the bees returning with their pollen baskets filled with little bundles of colour. Once inside the hive, the pollen is received by the house bees and stored in cells either side of the brood nest and in halos surrounding the brood on each frame with the nectar outside of that. How efficient to have the larder exactly where it is needed, beside the babies! Colours of pollens are difficult to distinguish at the moment as pollen from sycamore, rowan or mountain ash, buttercup and holly, all in bloom at the moment, vary only very slightly in shades of greenish yellow with sycamore being the darkest and holly the lightest. Shades of yellow pollens are also being brought in, from some late dandelion (orange yellow), late bluebells, hawthorn and elder, (all of a more true yellow) and then we have the delight of spotting the bright red pollen from the candles on the chestnut.

There has been some mention on FBKA WhatsApp about how little early nectar is being stored in supers. Oilseed rape is not grown in our area and this is the source of early harvests for many beekeepers. In addition, in Fermanagh, much of what is brought into the hives is being used to rear larvae. Also the weather in April, and so far in May, has been very dry and plants need moisture if they are to release nectar. A simple proof of this comes from outside my back door where there is a cotoneaster growing. Clouds of bumble bees and honey bees worked on it for a couple of days and then it was ignored. My husband watered it and back they came!

As soon as our normal activities can be resumed, all members will be informed and in the meantime, look after yourselves and keep safe.

FOOTNOTE: Since writing this, in the space of a few days, reports of swarms, swarm taking and swarm control have been coming in so I wish everyone well.