Our bee inspector has issued a warning about colony starvation so please ensure that you urgently check your hives for stores and act appropriately.
Also note, that with the weather warming up over the weekend, there is a high risk of swarming, so get in there asap and check your colonies before they fly away!!
If you want to report a swarm of bees, please follow this link.
With the warmer weather, ample forage and growing colonies, the threat of swarming looms ever larger!
Please ensure that you are inspecting your colonies regularly for swarming activity (e.g. every 5 days for unclipped queens) and do not imagine that by merely cutting out any queen cells you will solve the problem. You need to take the correct remedial action to avoid losing your queen and half of your bees!!
We therefore recommend that you read the PBKA’s leaflets:
Simplified Artificial Swarm Guide
and
Artificial Swarm without finding the Queen
At this time of year we get a lot of queries from members of the public about swarms of bees. One noticeable trend, has been the number of reports concerning bees found in the roof or facias of buildings, bird boxes, etc. This may well be the Tree Bumblebee (Bombus Hypnorum) which is a recent visitor to the UK, but is becoming more common.
Unlike other bumblebees which tend to nest in the ground, the Tree Bumblebee (see picture below) likes to live higher up, typically in bird boxes and roof spaces. In general, they are not aggressive unless disturbed and will naturally disappear later in the summer. Most of the flight activity outside the nest is by the males (Drones) which do not sting and are trying to mate with a virgin queen.
Please note that we do not remove bumble bee or wasp nests. For more information on swarms please click here.
We have been advised of two possible swarms in the Crymych area. If you are able to assist, please advise the Apiary Manager on pbkaapiarymanager@live.co.uk or message via this website who will obtain the contact details.
