Swarm Report

[doak]

Remember I told about getting 2 swarms this spring.
One the last week in March and the second Easter week.
Well here goes. Went today to pull some supers. Took the Easter week one first. I had already taken two supers of honey from it.
Opened it up," GOT---TORE--- UP". It was like they were eating Breakfast.
I had on two thick shirts but that wasn't enough, and this is the first time I have been stung through my "goat skin" gloves. They were not this way the first time I took some honey but it was during a flow then.
Came back to the house and put  my bee suit on over the two shirts and my jeans, and my canvas gloves on over the goat skins.
No honey in the first, "top" super and not a lot in the second. so I took the top one to go on the other hive I was going to check.
Now I will wait till the fall flow comes and see if they gentle down any. I have to requeen it anyhow.

Now for the swarm I  got the last week in March.
Opened it up after smoking the front entrance and the two uper entrances. Smoked the top a little, These bees was gentle and went down inside and didn't boil out the top like the other one.
Took the topbox off, it didn't have any honey, sat it aside, put the fume board on.
This is a 10 frame colony and the first time I took "2" supers from it I didn't have any more 10 frame supers, so I put an 8 frame deep and one 8 frame medium on.
The deep was full and the 10 frame medium below it was full.
This makes 3, 10 frame mediums and one 8 frame deep that March swarm produced.

Here is the kicker. (Brood room.) A week after I got this swarm there was brood in the second deep.
I just added another deep, get this now, 3 deeps, deep. When time came to add another honey super, I was going to take the 3rd deep off, but brood was up in it.
I didn't switch hive bodies, I had a metal  excluder I had cut down for a 8 frame size and just centered it on and put supers on.

As for getting honey with excluders on, Like I said this one was cut down and even cut short length wise, leaving about an inch and half on each end.
Plus I had two or three upper entrances.

These two swarms produced more honey each than any other of my overwintered colonies.

Some days the Diamonds, some days the Gold. ;)
doak

[Holycow]

Makes sense to me.
 "Ferrel bees"  housed the region they are wrangled should be used to the climate and all those other factors that might slow down the works of bees with habits "suited" to a slightly different habitat. I'm only an armchair scientist, but I've seen some huge colonies with amazing amounts of honey inside walls or abandoned cars out in the woods.
--Jeff

[doak]

Forgot to mention, The March swarm was from one of mine.
The Easter week swarm--------?????????, and it was a big one.
doak