Plain Talk Beekeeping

The Ageless Alley Queen and Drone Trap

I want to tell you a bee swarm story
I have a swarm story that I have relived many times, but it requires some painful background. I want to tell you the tale here. My wife went through a debilitating illness for a bit more than three years. I readily devoted most of my time to her care during that time. As I have said in previous ABJ articles, during those years, I was forced to mostly let the bees care for themselves. Without any help from me, they did a remarkably good job.
Since I was absolutely forced to become a “minimalist” beekeeper, I simply embraced the management scheme, but I did so with a great deal of management guilt. I wrote articles and produced podcasts telling others what they should be doing to their colonies, but at the time, I was not performing the same activities myself. Please know that I would have if I could have.

Bee swarms
Last spring and early summer, I knew that my “let-alone” management scheme would allow them to swarm. I have written many articles describing my living arrangements with my near neighbors. Not wanting to upset them — and not wanting to relinquish my bees — I put out swarm traps. My goal was to keep the swarms in my apiary and off their property. My plan did not aways work.
Due to time limitations, I broke most of the rules about putting out swarm traps. My traps were hit/miss hive boxes, containing a few drawn combs, that I left on hive stands. I did not take the time (or the risk) to get ladders to put my traps high off the ground. I never once used a swarm lure. I probably should have. Through those dark years, I did pick up five or six swarms. I was not always convinced that all of them were actually swarms from my hives …

 

 

 

 

 

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