SWARM SEASON –2025/2026
Report from Orange Beekeepers Inc
The enquiry about Cynthia Faulkner, President of Orange Beekeepers is what kicked this whole Swarm feature off. Orange is a little over 200 kms west of Sydney. With an altitude of almost 1000 metres, it has cold winters which produce a brood pause. Varroa arrived in Orange about 18 months behind Western Sydney.
Report from Geoff Michell
Bio-Security Officer for Orange Beekeepers Inc.
In 60 years of beekeeping, I cannot remember a swarm season as prolific as this last one. Certainly, it was a good season as far as floral resources were concerned, but the number and frequency of swarms was certainly well above expectations. The season started earlier than usual; October and November being the time for swarms in Orange.
Swarms were occurring this season, from September to January. Not only that, but hives swarmed more than once. Not just primary swarms, followed quickly by secondary swarms, but a primary swarm followed a few weeks later by a second primary swarm – young queens swarming. Young introduced queens also swarmed much to my chagrin.
As they say “you never stop learning as a beekeeper
This next Report is from our Orange Beekeepers Official Swarm Catcher- Graeme Brown. Graeme works with our Club Swarm Coordinator, Nicky Moss. This may seem an unnecessary doubling-up of roles, but it has all been so frantic this year that a separate person was required to handle all the incoming calls for assistance and to coordinate and arrange details, addresses of swarm collection etc. Nicky was unavailable to help with this report.
Orange Beekeepers Swarm Catcher Report 2025/26
Swarm Chaser – Graeme Brown, 4th Year beekeeper.
This is my first year as this club Swarm Catcher and has been a huge learning curve for me. The two most prominent things that I have learnt are Patience and Bees will do what Bees want to do and you don’t have any say in it.
Without the support of our Swarm Coordinator - Nicky Moss, our club President -Cyntha and all the club Members we would not have had such a great year. It has been a wonderful experience, and I would recommend it to anyone.
This year I have caught 32 swarms in the Orange Region, another 3 swarms moved on so were unable to be caught. On a sad note, 3 inspections of bees inside building walls could not be recovered.
The swarms varied in size from small to extra-large, their degree of catchability also varied from Easy (hanging on a shrub) - Medium (on a Shopping trolley at Kmart) -Harder (9 meters up a tree) - Very Hard (a swarm in the centre of a large pile of Rose bush trimmings).
An interesting fact is that the majority of swarms were caught on the western edge of Orange City Area, not many to the East.
All Swarms were rehomed to club members, some experienced beekeepers and some new beginners starting their journey in beekeeping.
Orange region is a Rural area comprising some other towns and villages, so to collect and deliver these I have travelled 2500 Km in total.
Varroa Tests were done on all swarms with varied results. About half had zero count. Some small swarms showed a bigger count (2-3 mites) than larger swarms (1-2 mites) I don’t think these counts would be a true indication of mite load, but that your swarm has Varroa and you need to deal with it. There were no signs of Large scale SHB .
Orange Beekeepers Vice President, Brian Berrill, reported:
All 3 of my hives were split- taking existing queen with the split. All 3 hives produced new queens but also swarmed. Additionally, I had started Bayverol treatment at the same time as splits. I think the treatment had an effect and perhaps also added to the requirement for the bees to swarm.
A collage of swarm photos from Orange Summer 2025 -26. Please note all images for this story were supplied by Orange Beekeepers Inc.