It's that time of year again - I seem to spend most of my day in a bee suit but it's been great to pick up some prime swarms to add to my colonies. Two have been from my hives and the rest from fairly local hedges! All are laying and building and doing what swarms love to do, and the weather has been warm and sunny (in between the odd day of torrential rain, hail and strong winds) so the foragers have been busy on the remaining hawthorn. I did feed one small swarm with a frame of stores poached from a stronger hive as they had been in the open for 3 days. One swarm decided to make their new home in a roof unfortunately but we are going to investigate to see if the bees have access to the interior of the house; if not, there's not really much point in faffing about trying to remove them.
I used small rectangles of foundation (approximately 2 x 8cm) affixed at the top of the frames this year as I read/heard/dreamt? that bees fix comb more securely to wood than to wax and so far they are building lovely straight comb in line with the frames. I've sold one colony and the fresh combs survived the trip so it seems to be working. I find swarming in a controlled manner is great for bees and brood as the varroa load is lessened during the break, and they start their colony life in new, bee-built comb to their own specifications. I'm not sure how many cast swarms I will get, but I'm rapidly running out of room!
