Free Swarms And Settled Swarms: How To Recover Them

Swarming is a completely natural event that affects bee families. When a family grows too large and has no more room to develop it splits. The old queen will fly away from the hive of origin, taking a large part of the colony with her, and only a few bees and the virgin queen ready to be born will remain. Swarming is nothing more than the way the hive superorganism reproduces: two distinct and separate families will emerge from one family. A swarming family, however, represents a loss for the beekeeper. Neither of the two colonies will be able to reach production or may even fail to develop sufficiently, risking not surviving the winter. This is why the beekeeper acts to prevent this. Sometimes, however, even this is not enough and swarming occurs anyway. So how to act in these situations?

When we speak of swarms, it is useful to make an immediate distinction between free swarms and settled swarms: free swarms are those that can be found on a support (a branch, bush, trunk) not far from the hive of origin. Their cluster-like conformation is quite characteristic and can reach considerable size. This may be due to the fact that it is the fruit of the union of several swarms. Free swarms have not yet found a permanent home: they will remain temporarily where they are until the scouts find a suitable place to settle the family. The settled swarms, on the other hand, as the word suggests, have settled permanently, sometimes in inaccessible locations, such as cracks in walls. Recovery operations, therefore, involve some extra precautions.

In general, to recover swarms, beekeepers use a swarm catcher hive that is small (it contains 5 frames) and particularly light. It is also equipped with air intakes that allow long movements of the captured swarm. A real hive or special perforated buckets can be used to collect the bees and move them to the hives. Depending on the location of the swarm, one can also resort to swarm catchers consisting of a resealable canvas bag placed at the end of a pole. This tool is very useful if swarms are found in very high locations. In some cases it may be necessary to use motorised bee catchers, especially if the bees are in places that are difficult to access and where the beekeeper's work is impeded by obstacles of various kinds. Other useful tools for the beekeeper are certainly the suit, the smoker and the brush.

Let us start, however, with the most common case, namely the recovery of free swarms. As we have seen, these swarms have not yet chosen where to settle, so 'convincing' them to settle in a hive can be quite simple. Generally speaking, these swarms are rather docile and the reason is soon explained. Before swarming, in fact, the bees fill up on the supplies they will need to build their new home. Having their honeydew bag full of nourishment, they find it more difficult to evert their sting. Another possible explanation could be related to the fact that, once away from the hive, they lose some of their aggressiveness.

The various operations to be performed can be more or less complex depending on where the bees are located. If, for example, they have settled on a branch, one can proceed by cutting it with a shear and inserting them directly into the hive. If they have settled on a trunk it may be necessary to intervene by picking them up with a special bucket or by hanging the hive nearby to entice them to move inside. One can also proceed by using a brush. Once the bees are inside, the frames must be arranged. In order to allow all the bees to enter the hive, it is a good idea to carry out recovery operations during the day, so that all the workers can enter before evening. During all these operations, special attention must be paid to the queen. It is useful to locate her and immediately place her in the hive: this will also encourage the rest of the colony to follow her.

In the case of the recovery of settled swarms, everything becomes a little more complex. Since the bees are already established in a particular place, one must proceed in the same way as for the transfer from one hive to another. The recommended period for carrying out these operations is early spring. The techniques that can be adopted are varied and also depend on the situation in front of you and the level of difficulty of the recovery. One of the most useful expedients is certainly the removal of the combs from the nest and their grafting onto the empty frames of the destination hive. Generally, this operation involves combs with brood, fresh and operculated. One can also proceed by connecting the hive's exit hole with a hive, so that the bees are forced to fly through it. After a few days, the combs can be decanted.

Effective control of swarming and timely intervention in the event of this phenomenon occurring can help the beekeeper considerably. With the help of a remote monitoring system 3Bee you can be alerted in real time in case of sudden weight changes. Discover all the features of our systems and how they can help you in your daily work. Discover the available models and choose the one that suits you best!