Swarm On! 18/05/2018
2 swarms caught by Uli & Conor.
The nice weather had arrived finally so myself and Uli met up to go through 2 of my hives. After a very long winter and very few opportunities to go through the hives at ease, Friday was looking very promising!
All was set up nicely except for the fact that my smoker had gone missing . We had a choice of going without a smoker and proving our manliness or driving all the way out to Uli’s house to get his. We opted for the smoker (Uli’s choice… just saying) and drove out to Faha.
While grabbing the smoker we noticed a bit of commotion with the bees and Uli spotted a swarm hanging from a branch only about 10 meters from his hive.
Earlier in the summer of 2015, a Native Black Honey Bee (Apis melifera melifera) apiary was established in Killarney National Park. It was set up by the Killarney National Park Education Centre with help from Beaufort Beekeeper Tuddy Clifford. 
Swarming is the honey bee’s method of colony reproduction. The old queen and about half of the worker bees leave their former nest and seek a new home. While a swarm of bees may look frightening, bees that are swarming and carrying honey from their old hive are much less defensive or likely to sting. It takes quite a bit of stimulation, such as being hit by sticks and stones or squirted with a hose, to induce defensive behaviour.
Based on figures taken from 16 of our members our colony losses for the past years ir roughly 55%. While there has been discussions blaming our cold summer last year and the fact that queens were not mated, it is not known to what extent this played a factor. Other factors to take into consideration are the Varroa Mite and the use of Pesticides which debilitate the bees navigation system. Maybe by keeping a record of our losses and comparing it to records from other parts of the country might give us more of an indication to the source of this proble 