Tuesday, October 17, 2017
TEMPORARY hives like this one are common until scouts find a permanent home. Photo supplied
FERAL bee swarms are common this time of year and may hold the answer to the decline of domesticated bees, says bee hobbyist Malcolm Helyar.
Swarms occur when the queen bee from an over-populated hive takes a group of workers and moves out to look for a new hive. Normally a new young queen and a smaller group of worker bees are left behind in the old hive.
“The workers going with the old queen will stock up on as much food and wax as they can carry. When this is done, the queen and the workers move off as a group,” he said.
The queen will then send out scouts to locate a new home.
“Once the scouts return to the swarm, the queen decides on the best option of where to go, and the swarm will then move on to this chosen site and set up home,” he said.
But with the arrival of the varroa mite, honey bees have difficulty surviving in the wild. Mr Helyar said it was very important that swarms were correctly collected and looked after by a beekeeper.
“Food and billions of dollars of New Zealand’s export earnings depend on the pollination done by bees. Sad to say they are in trouble around the world now with sprays, chemicals, and pests. They do need to be looked after,” he said.
Mr Helyar has developed a strong affinity for bees. “Honey bees are very special, as well as hard-working, clever, and well organised,” he said.
“Worker bees and the queen are all female. They don’t sleep, and the workers have a range of jobs in the hive they have to do before finally becoming field bees,” he said.
But their lives become no easier with the “promotion” to field bee, he said.
“They fly up to five kilometres in all directions from their hive, flying up to 800km to produce 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in their life,” he said.
“Making 16 ounces of honey requires approximately 1152 bees to travel around 180,242km and visiting 4.5 million flowers.”
Worker bees tend to die when their wings start to shred, so life in a busy summer can be as little as 10 days, he said.
“Wasps and varroa mites will attack and eat them. Sprays and chemicals will poison them. They have a hard life,” he said.
Mr Helyar asks that anyone who finds a swarm contact him at 021 2233619 or 0212536629 before reaching for chemicals and killing the bees. He will come and safely collect, save, and look after the bees.