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Hiya, I've done this method when moving my bees about 500 yards. Firstly I must say I've only done this when I absolutely had to in a case of urgency, normally I would wait till winter as its much easier. At the temperatures we have in the UK atm the omf is fine for ventilation. I've only kept...

Look at the over all shape of their movement. They're going round in increasing shapes learning where their home is. When it's a swarm there's no question, its much much bigger and loud.

We all observe this, but found this a good read. https://news.google.com/articles/CBMiL2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnBuYXMub3JnL2NvbnRlbnQvMTE4LzMzL2UyMTExMzEwMTE40gEA?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB%3Aen

Thanks for the advice all

Hello all, just wanted some thoughts as to what is the best time to treat one of my hives, it's a swarm hive. At the time I discovered they had moved into a couple of stacked bb's I had no other hives on the site, so no need to go up there. So no idea when they moved in but they have turned out...

Can you try again and unite them with newspaper to a hive?

Agreed I should of stated that.

Sounds like you're on the right track. I would take the opportunity to do a varroa treatment too.

Yes freeze them straight away. As soon as you remove frames you must remember that they are not being maintained by the bees, temp, insects, humidity ect. In the past I've learned the costly way of being too slow to freeze and lost good frames (Apart from fully capped stores or frames extracted...

Easy to miss queen cells. They can hide them away, then with an abundance of bees not be seen.

This is good visual explanation of an artificial swarm

Well done for doing the split, it's a scary thing to do for the first time. If you don't reduce the qc's down to one you will get further cast swarms, where each virgin takes an amount of bees with her leaving you with a small week hive. Pick the nicest looking qc and cut out the rest, mark the...

Every swarm I have had has been in middle of brood or off to side, not at the bottom like " swarm cells". Im betting they've run out of room and are about to swarm..I would split the hive and do an artificial swarm. But that's just me.

Last year I had a very similar experience, I waited and waited and to me they seemed doomed, Jenkins told me to be patient and give the virgin time and he was right, I couldn't believe how hopeless they had looked to how quickly they began to thrive.

I agree

You don't say how many frames of brood is in your bb. If it's literally filled with brood as you say, they may be preparing to swarm. If the queen has no room to lay she will swarm .As for cups if there's the beginnings of a qc and larvae in it you may have caught them in the process of building...

Found her, love this game BTW :giggle:

I did look into treating this way but was advised with only 3 hives it was not worth it. It is definitely something i will look into in the future.

The first hive i started with was commercial so i just continued with them. I like the little extra space they offer in terms of laying room. I find handling frames is just fine with shorter lugs, but my only grievance is they do get heavy when full, especially if you go to double brood. Lifting...

Ah thanks for explanation pargyl. Ok i will try to explain counts. I was unable to get to my bees as regularly this summer so it was approx every 3 weeks. So yes i did sugar rolls each inspection. I tried to cover all bases each visit , counts ensuring extra room with supers ect. . My mite drop...