yes it is swarming season

as i said yesterday especialy after a rainy day or 2 ......the best way to stop a swarm is to prevent the bees from wanting too....
keep the brood nest large enough by supplying new frames in the brood nest ...if you notice all cells full so the queen has no place to lay .... you can pull out frames of honey from the outer edges and put in new foundation or drawn empty comb ...put the honeyfilled frames the in the freezer wrapped up ....best emergency food for next winter or spring is honey in the comb....make sure you thaw it first before giveing it back to them.......
check your bees at least every 1 1/2 - 2 weeks look for swarm cells .... if you find them you must deprive them of one of 3 things ....brood...bees ...or the queen....

brood as i mentioned above ...

bees... by pagening ...pagening is when you have 2 or more hives you place a weaker hive in place of your strong ready to swarm hive and the stronger hive in the weaker ones place ...you have just removed all the field bees out of the strong hive ....and boosted your week one....

queen ... you can cage the queen up in an old queen cage for 4-7 days cork both ends of the cage and place her in the middle of the brood nest so the screen side is available to the bees so they can feed and tend her ....when you let her loose in that 4-7 days she will have plenty of cells to lay in ......
make sure to remove any queen cells you see .. as long as you have verified that they still have their queen
hopefully you will have stopped the urge to swarm

good luck...... hopefully you all have your honey suppers on and might bee seeing them getting drawn and filled ......
email, blog ,or call me if your in need of advice
the beardedbee
tom

A Message From Tom Flebotte

watch for those swarms today ...i heard they are out ....after acouple days of rain they seem to take off ..........

Pollinator Week

June 20-26 is pollinator week. This is a week to raise awareness and highlight the importance of all pollinators. Be sure you do your part. You don't need to attend or host a grand event, but it would great if you did. You just need to make it a point to discuss what you do as a beekeeper to anyone that will listen. Honeybees are misunderstood and under appreciated, and as beekeepers we need to change the way people see honeybees and our craft. If you would like more information you can visit www.pollinator.org

My First Post...

Hello everyone! I'm Jessica, and I'm a new member of Hampden County Beekeeper's Association. I'm a brand new beekeeper, and I think my hive is doing well, but I always have questions. LOTS of questions. With this new blog, the more seasoned beekeepers should be able to help us new beekeepers with answers and suggestions between meetings. We will also be able to share other information and updates. I think the blog will be useful and fun!

To kick things off, here's a picture of me and my bees... And a question...

Why won't they stop stinging me?

Welcome

Welcome to “The Hampden County Massachusetts Beekeepers Association’s Blog!”

Where one of the World’s oldest form of agriculture is embracing cutting edge technology. Here we can discus techniques, problems, ideas and much, much more all at the speed of Light!