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A seed mix was sown. There are various commercial suppliers and I think this farmer was/is an agent for one of them. As far as I can tell it's a mixture of native/non-native flowers. Purists will object but our pollinators and seed eating birds really don't care. It's food, and for me much more interesting than hedge to hedge monoculture or couch grass and nettles!

@@WindsorBees Thank you :) I see, why purists would object, but as long as no problematic/invasive species were included, I would agree that the results and the benefits to other species matter more (Not to forget about the delightful sight).

Absolutely. This is one of the easiest ways to raise additional queens. Just take a couple of frames of stores and three frames of bees and put them in a 5 frame nuc box. Obviously you need to ensure there are queen cells on the frames you transfer across. I wouldn't bother cutting out surplus queen cells because a secondary swarm off a nuc is unlikely. If you've got plenty of bees in the mother hive it may help to shake a few house bees off an additional frame into the nuc. Put the lid on and leave well alone for a three weeks.

@@WindsorBees how often are queen cells produced where I can take one out and are they produced certain times of the year?

@@dbluehorsedeboe5567 Queen cells are produced before bees swarm. Typically this occurs in late spring/early summer. Frequency of swarming depends on several factors but it would not be unusual for a colony to swarm once a year. Can I disabuse you of the notion that taking a single queen cell and putting it in a box will result in a new colony. It won't. You need to ensure the queen is supported by plenty of house bees as I described above.

@@WindsorBees I cked my hives, there were so many bees in the brood box when I took the super off, I couldn't see if there were any queen cells Do I just pull them out and look, I'm afraid to lose the queen already in the box

Danielle Garrison i see your question is a little old but just Shake the bees off with a sharp short movement, doesn’t hurt the bees. You can either do this inside the hive by removing a few frames or on top of the frames, the bees will go back down. I do see however your question relates to creating more queens, in which case you need to learn the genetics of F0,F1,F2 queens. Obviously do not shake any frames with queen cells that you intend on keeping. Have a look into splitting colony’s, you don’t need to wait until they are in swarm mode to create queens, you can make them when you want with splits.

That's a good point and I often skip the last switch around of the boxes (or forget!). It's a matter of judgement - you don't want to leave the 'new' colony with too many bees because there's a fair chance the virgin will be off with a secondary swarm, and further castes will follow. So, the theory is to deplete the 'new' hive of it's new foragers by doing that last box switch. Another way to deplete the 'new' colony is to take some frames with bees and QCs out and put in a nuc and shake in some extra house bees. Especially useful if you want to have a back-up queen. Regarding defensiveness - foragers returning with crop-fulls of nectar do not elicit a defensive response. The guards will recognise the same/similar nest mate odour and a bee returning laden with nectar isn't likely to be a robber.

poppy paul i've seen it once, in the midwest..(kansas)

BB 2000 what location?

I hope you found it useful. Some frequently asked questions about this method are answered on our bee society web site: swmbks.weebly.com/faqs-on-artificial-swarms.html

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