They go hand in hand in the Spring months. The nectar flow has been going now for about 3 weeks. The main source of the nectar flow in Carolina’s is the Tulip Poplar tree. It can bloom about 4-6 weeks depending on the weather. The Honey Bee will chose this source of forage over most others. I still see an occasional bee on my herbs, but their food of choice at this time is Tulip Poplar.
This is also an opportune time for swarms. The queen has been laying and building up the hive since the Red Maples began to bloom. Many swarms happen right at the point between the early spring blooming sources and the Tulip Poplar bloom. This nectar source gives the swarm the ability to build up comb quickly. After swarming, the Honey Bee is compelled to build out the comb in their new home. Hopefully that new home is in one of your swarm traps.
I found a great swarm box. I acquired it several years ago and noticed that the swarms always chose that one first, no matter where I put it. The design is a regular swarm trap size (about the size of a Nuc with extra space at the bottom) This extra space allows the bees to quickly inhabit the box and then once in the box, sort out where each bee goes. It also has a small slit for an entrance at the end of the box. Bees like a small entrance. This information was introduced by Dr. Thomas Seeley in his book “Honey Bee Democracy” If you have not read it, you should!!
I am looking forward to a successful nectar flow this year. Previous years have been so sporadic and I am ready for a good year.
Here is one of the swarms that I caught. It was a big swarm and inhabited my swarm box only a few days after I got it placed. The only down part about this swarm box is that the extra space can be filled up with comb if the swarm is left in the box for too long. Because this was such a large swarm, that duration of being able to leave them in the box was shortened. Yes, they had started building comb and there was already some brood in the comb.
The process involves smoking the bees away from the comb and cutting it away from the frame. I saved the comb with the most brood in it and rubber banded it to frames. The rest of the comb got put back inside the swarm box for the bees to extract any resources from the comb.
Here is a peak at what that looks like.
That wraps up another blog for April 2025.
I hope that you enjoyed it and learned something!
Namaste”
