Potential Replacement Swarm System

With the arrival of Varroa, most feral colonies will sooner or later die as a result of high mite load. However, till that moment such colonies can become mite bombs and impact managed colonies. Thus, we now have an additional reason to collect swarms and that is to help reduce the risk of mite infestation.

Current System

The current Swarm System is hosted on the ABA Portal and all members can opt-in to be listed as a swarm collector for up to ten postcode areas. Many members are listed on this platform for years and are contacted when a swarm is found.

Swarmscreen

Proposed New System

We are currently evaluating a new system based on the platform beeswarmed.org with these benefits:

  • Swarm reports are asked for the location of the swarm, size, situation, height and how long the swarm was there, which gives more information to beekeepers.
  • Swarm report provides contact details which will be sent to all beekeepers who have the location within their area of coverage.
  • Personal details (name, mobile number) are not visible when a person accesses the web
  • Beekeepers receive a notification SMS or email or WhatsApp message and can “Claim” the swarm.
  • The first beekeeper who “claims” the swarm will be provided with the contact details of the Swarm Reporter.
  • Swarm Reporter will receive an email if there is no beekeeper covering their area.

Further details can be found on the Swarmed Wiki website

What’s next

Before we switch to any new system, we will need buy-in from our members as any system will only work if we have sufficient coverage.

Thus, we ask all interested in this service to sign-up by following the instructions below

By mid-July we will assess how many members are interested and then decide whether we migrate to the new system or stay on the current version.

For any feedback on this topic, please contact feedback@beekeepers.asn.au

 Steps to register as a beekeeper

  • Go to https://beeswarmed.org/register-as-a-beekeeper
  • Enter your name, email address, mobile number
  • Set a password
  • Select if you want to receive SMS or email notification (WhatsApp is in planning)
  • Tick box if you are doing cut-outs
  • Select “yes” for “Are you part of an association/club?”
  • Enter Amateur Beekeepers Australia and the code 9720
  • Select yes or no if you are insured
  • Enter your location
  • Use the dial to indicate the radius you are prepared to cover

Click on “sign-up”