Swarm Help!!

[Blakey1]

I am a novice bee keeper and my one hive was doing very well - good stock of bees. A few weeks ago I put on a super with frames of foundation. They were drawing this well and filling with honey. However on doing a hive inspection 10 days ago I found a few queen cells which I knocked before ensuring I still had a queen or eggs! Novice mistake! Continuing with my inspection I could not find queen or eggs. Went back next day - still no sign of either. Got a frame of eggs from a friend 8 days ago. Bees produced several queen cells - I knocked all but one. Thought I was sorted - came home this evening to find they had swarmed into nearby tree. V difficult to capture swarm as they were all the way around trunk and up in branches. Managed to brush half the bees into empty hive - the rest seem to have made their way back to original hive. Now I am not sure what is going on. Did they swarm because they have 2 queens? Could I have missed the original queen on last full inspection? (Doubt it). Now I have half of swarm trapped into brood box of old hive. What are the chances they have a queen with them? Any advice on what to do next appreciated. Thanks


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[Bakerbee]

Sometimes it is not obvious in amount of bees in the hive that they have swarmed already. How full did your hive seem after losing your queen? Were any flying afterward. The quern would have taken the flyers. You could of had a virgin in there and the swarm you have seen was a cast. Can you give any more details of observations on hive size, flyers, and size of swarm approximatly.

 

[badger65]

I am a novice bee keeper and my one hive was doing very well - good stock of bees. A few weeks ago I put on a super with frames of foundation. They were drawing this well and filling with honey. However on doing a hive inspection 10 days ago I found a few queen cells which I knocked before ensuring I still had a queen or eggs! Novice mistake! Continuing with my inspection I could not find queen or eggs. Went back next day - still no sign of either. Got a frame of eggs from a friend 8 days ago. Bees produced several queen cells - I knocked all but one. Thought I was sorted - came home this evening to find they had swarmed into nearby tree. V difficult to capture swarm as they were all the way around trunk and up in branches. Managed to brush half the bees into empty hive - the rest seem to have made their way back to original hive. Now I am not sure what is going on. Did they swarm because they have 2 queens? Could I have missed the original queen on last full inspection? (Doubt it). Now I have half of swarm trapped into brood box of old hive. What are the chances they have a queen with them? Any advice on what to do next appreciated. Thanks


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Destroying queen cells is not an effective form of swarm control. They were ready to swarm and did as soon as they had a queen. You needed to use a method that woul remove the impulse. You will not know if they have a queen until you see evidence. I would put some foundation into the empty hive with the half swarm. If there is no queen in either put another frame of eggs into the swarm hive and thfn share between both hives.

 

[Beefriendly]

I knocked all but one. Thought I was sorted -

Nope, you missed the queen or she had already swarmed. And then perhaps missed one ( or a few) queen cells. Bees can be very inventive at hiding queen cells from beekeepers eyes...catches everyone out at some point or another. Novice or experienced.

 

[Millet]

Nope, you missed the queen or she had already swarmed. And then perhaps missed one ( or a few) queen cells. Bees can be very inventive at hiding queen cells from beekeepers eyes...catches everyone out at some point or another. Novice or experienced.

One thousand per cent agree, you will never know if you have a hidden Queen unless you can smell like bee's, i went through one hive a few day's ago, jackpot queenless, however it was not, i removed some drone brood on the bottom bars and a nearly emerged Queen was infront of me.. mad eh...Nothing is wrote in stone so to speak..

 

[Blakey1]

Sometimes it is not obvious in amount of bees in the hive that they have swarmed already. How full did your hive seem after losing your queen? Were any flying afterward. The quern would have taken the flyers. You could of had a virgin in there and the swarm you have seen was a cast. Can you give any more details of observations on hive size, flyers, and size of swarm approximatly.

This is a photo of the swarm. It was a little larger than what is visible on the photo. The hive was still full of bees after losing the queen - no noticeable difference in numbers before and afterwards. Brood box had four or five frames almost completely covered with bees and outer frames had bees on them too - lots of bees up in super. Brood box seemed crowded before I added super. There was still bees flying into and out of hive when swarm was in nearby tree



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[Bakerbee]

Looks like you missed the queen on original inspection. They slim down before swarming and are easy to miss. Adding a super on top would not have been enough to stop the swarm impulse. An AS should have been done as it sounds they were out of room. The rules of inspection. Food? Room? Bias? Health? Some bees can be really swarmy despite our best efforts, fingers crossed you scooped up the queen when collecting the swarm. Fingers crossed you dont get futher casts with virgins. Post how you get on.

 

[Finman]

.
When you see Queen cells in the hive, make an artificial swarm with foundations.

And inspect in 7 days period.

Keep foundations and frames ready.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Snip ..... There was still bees flying into and out of hive when swarm was in nearby tree



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You do appreciate about half the bees leave with a swarm and the rest stay behind don't you?