I want to learn about the club
The Rotorua Honey Bee Club was established several years ago to promote beekeeping through local support, knowledge and education. We now have over 100 members with a good blend of experienced beekeepers and those new to beekeeping (newbees.)
Every two months we send out a comprehensive newsletter to members detailing what is happening in the hive and what we should be doing as beekeepers. We also meet monthly (generally on a Sunday afternoon) for a practical session. These meetings are often facilitated by an experienced commercial beekeeper. Beekeeping methods are constantly evolving and adapting to our changing environment, so it’s important to keep learning. We share our successes and mistakes with one another, working and learning together to improve our understanding of honey bees and successful hive management.
I have a swarm
Swarms are natural. Honey bees are the only type of bees that swarm. It is part of their natural reproductive lifecycle.
The swarming season in Rotorua usually begins in late August and can sometimes last through till Christmas. Warm weather and plentiful supplies of flowers and pollen stimulate the queen bee to lay more eggs. The resulting large numbers of young bees causes overcrowding in the hive, reducing both the queen’s desire to lay eggs and the worker bee’s ability to add more nectar and pollen. Swarms are the natural outcome of these circumstances.
The queen and about half the colony (5,000 to 20,000 worker bees) will swirl from their hive and land on a tree branch, mail box or even a car.