If I bring in store bought bees at my place will I be harming my indigenous bees? I would like to just place a hive next to their tree and hope to lure a swarm into it but I am unsure how realistic this is. They have swarmed twice this year already, will they swarm again?
Bees swarm when their hive gets too crowded. As for setting up a hive and hoping for the best.....I do not know either!
try rubbing the inside of the hive with beeswax, as this will help attract the bees if they swarm again. you can also buy bee attractants from beekeeping suppliers. each swarm will make a new hive, so it sounds like you have a pretty good source of colonies here, depending on how many you want. good luck, justgojumpit
There is also swarm lure. It is some kind of scent that attracts the swarming bees. Check some of the online beekeeping suppliers, I know I've seen it before online.
They could very well swarm again, depending on how the nectar flow is going in your area. You could try and remove the hive from the tree, but that is another post and topic all together. If you place, a swarm trap out you may catch one, try and give them what they are looking for. Place the trap 100+ ft away from the bee tree. If you can, put more than one trap out. Get them up 12 ft. or so above the ground with the entrance facing south-southeast. If you have any old drawn frames of comb that you can put into the traps this will help lure them to it. As mentioned before you can check into buying some swarm lures. If you have the chance to see a swarm you can catch them very easy if you have a hive ready to go when you see them. Of course you can put a swarm in almost anything, but if you have a hive with frames all you have to do is shake them into the hive. Yes if you bring in bees from another location, they will interbreed with each other. Now whether you think this is harming the bees that live in the tree that is your opinion and option. The honey bee (Apis Mellifera) is not native to north or south America. Most of what you see in bee yards consist of a mix. Unless they requeen every year from a well established queen breeder...and even then you can see some difference in the way the bees look from time to time. I see that you are from Texas, so there is a chance that you have Africanized Honey Bees (AHB) in your area so bee careful. BB
This hive is located in Mississippi and has been there as long as anyone can remember. My concern about bringing in new bees was primarily due to the mite problems I often read about. I would guess my bees do not have this problem and I did not want to introduce mites into the colony some how. I have no wish to move the bees from their home but thought if I could catch a swarm to produce honey I would. Here is a picture of the last swarm, It eventually split into two swarms side by side and they stayed there for about three days through some rain. This was a tiny swarm compared to the first one this year.
Cool pic! Not very often that you see a swarm on the ground. Sounds like it could have been a "after swarm". This happons when a large hive swarms and when the virgins emerge later they swarm too. if you had 2 virgins in the swarm they could have been confused and thats why they ended up on the ground. (letting the virgins fight it out.) I don't see a problem with you bring another hive into your area. Most likely you have more bees brought through than you know. BB
