Helen
House Bee
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2009
- Messages
- 302
- Reaction score
- 5
- Location
- uk, Suffolk
- Hive Type
- Other
- Number of Hives
- Enough
I checked the bees a week ago, and found empty cups in one of the hives. Then I went away on business, and got back yesterday afternoon. Too cold and too tired to check them. This morning, I looked out and there was a swarm under a seat in the garden. So popped them into a nuc, and checked my bees which had the empty queen cups. Lots of bees, and I found the queen in there. So I assume the swarm came from elsewhere.
Whilst I was in, I did an AS. My first. Found and captured the queen, placing her in a cage in the front entrance. Shook the bees from the frames into a tub of icing sugar. Moved 11 frames to the back of the hive, added in a divider, and put the remaining 3 at the front. Added 6 new frames of foundation between the divider and the 3 frames at the front. By this time, there was a nice mass of bees at the front of the hive. Poured the bees left in the icing sugar into the rear 11 frames, opened up the rear entrance, put on the super and closed that up. Added new super frames into the super at the front, on top of the new frames. Released the original and very prolific queen into the 3 frames at the front of the hive, then closed up.
Now leaving them all to settle down again.
The bees in the rear should make a new queen cell, hatch it and create a new queen. Then, I combine the 2 colonies back to one, selecting either the old queen or the new one.
All very exciting.
Still got to figure out what to do with the new swarm though as I dont have room for more hives.
Whilst I was in, I did an AS. My first. Found and captured the queen, placing her in a cage in the front entrance. Shook the bees from the frames into a tub of icing sugar. Moved 11 frames to the back of the hive, added in a divider, and put the remaining 3 at the front. Added 6 new frames of foundation between the divider and the 3 frames at the front. By this time, there was a nice mass of bees at the front of the hive. Poured the bees left in the icing sugar into the rear 11 frames, opened up the rear entrance, put on the super and closed that up. Added new super frames into the super at the front, on top of the new frames. Released the original and very prolific queen into the 3 frames at the front of the hive, then closed up.
Now leaving them all to settle down again.
The bees in the rear should make a new queen cell, hatch it and create a new queen. Then, I combine the 2 colonies back to one, selecting either the old queen or the new one.
All very exciting.
Still got to figure out what to do with the new swarm though as I dont have room for more hives.