swarm about to go

[eddyh]

on arriving home from work yesterday i noticed a mass of bees on the face of one of my hives.This hive i recently lost a swarm from so i think it was a cast about to leave,so i did a inspection and found 4 or 5 queen cells, one about to emerge,so i knocked them all down as i think there was a virgin running around.I plan to put a test frame in just to be sure and if they start drawing out emergency cells introduce a mated queen as i have plenty spare.Does this sound ok.

 

[Finman]

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You must handle swarming fever.

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[Eyeman]

on arriving home from work yesterday i noticed a mass of bees on the face of one of my hives.This hive i recently lost a swarm from so i think it was a cast about to leave,so i did a inspection and found 4 or 5 queen cells, one about to emerge,so i knocked them all down as i think there was a virgin running around.I plan to put a test frame in just to be sure and if they start drawing out emergency cells introduce a mated queen as i have plenty spare.Does this sound ok.

To be sure that there is a virgin in the hive I would have released all queens from the queen cells if they were just about to emerge. Make sue there are no other queen cells still around and let the virgins fight it out. They shouldn't swarm if there aren't any remaining queen cells

 

[Finman]

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Put an excluder into the hive. I may have virgin or hidden queen cell.

Often queen cells seems to be capped, but when you see closer, the queen has emerged, and the cap has closed nicely.