It’s Easter weekend, so a very Happy Easter to you all. Here in Norfolk, we’re expecting temperatures to rise to nearly 20 degrees centigrade, that’s around 68 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s definitely T-Shirt weather and time to get some decent Spring inspections carried out.
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We’ve been waiting patiently since late Winter for our warmer weather to kick in, it’s been a little up and down with only the odd day warming up before dropping back down to what, in reality, is actually closer to the more normal, average temperatures for this time of year.

With the rise in temperature comes the inevitable start of the swarm season and it’s something we can all work with to ensure, for the most part, we don’t lose swarm after swarm from our hives and miss out on an early Spring crop of honey.

Today I wanted to take a look at the swarming process and look at opportunities we beekeepers can take advantage of, rather than viewing the coming weeks with dread and worry.

For the beginner beekeeper, understanding the process of swarming and knowing key features will allow you to gain control of the situation by knowing what is happening within the colony and how you can affect the outcome to best suit your beekeeping priorities. Now this may simply be that you don’t want any swarms or increases, perhaps you have a couple of colonies and that suits you very nicely. Alternatively, you might be looking to increase from a single colony that you purchased last year as a nucleus colony and you’re looking to grow the number of colonies you have this Spring. Of course, for the more experienced beekeepers out there you’ll already have a good handle on what’s likely to happen over the coming weeks and you’ll obviously have a plan and all the equipment you need at hand and prepared ready for one of our busiest periods of the beekeeping season. It doesn’t do any harm to just recap on the various factors with swarming, so I hope all you seasoned Pro’s out there will keep listening too, who knows I might say something that helps or you might find yourself dropping me a message to tell me a better way of dealing with swarms.

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