A strange thing happened today.......

[plumberman]

Going through one of my large double brood hives - had already put a third super on this one, and was thinking that even then they needed more space. Found one uncapped QC, nothing else and eggs/ brood present - marked queen present. Destroyed QC, but made mental note to keep a close eye on this lot, then reassembled hive.

I thought at the time there seemed more bees in the air than normal, and then looked skywards and classic swarm appearance. Looked at front of hive - there was the queen on the ground. Went to pick her up with queen clip, and she flew off. However, soon returned- this time caught her in clip, and returned to brood box. "Swarming" bees then returned.....

My feeling is that they are almost certainly going to swarm ( bursting with bees) but not yet, and that the queen simply flew off( laying queens can still fly, I believe) and bees followed as if swarm.

Anyone seen anything similar/ any other opinions?

 

[theengraver]

in the past when that happens i find 2 days later they swarm again for real.

 

[grizzly]

Hi plumberman
The QC, was it definitely uncapped or had a Virgin chewed her way out ?
Is there only one queen in the hive.

 

[Skyhook]

in the past when that happens i find 2 days later they swarm again for real.

Beat them to it, and AS now?

 

[Mike a]

Beat them to it, and AS now?

Just one queen cell?

Sounds more like supersedure and a load of bees flew out with the virgin queen as she left to go find some drones.

 

[Howsoonisnow]

Earlier, I was standing next to a queenless hive that was left with only one sealed queen cell I'm sure and which was due for emerging and the bees were issuing from it with the energy and attitude of a swarm. There was a cloud of bees but I didn't see them cluster.

Could this have been the virgin emerging?

Or am I a rubbish beekeeper?

 

[Hebeegeebee]

It might be wise to do an A/S now IMO or wait a couple of days until there is another openqueencell.

Options fro consideration: Q/Ex under to stop her going before an A/S (Q/Ex will upset the drones). Clip the queen so you don't lose the bees and your honey crop.

 

[Midland Beek]

The obvious suggestion would be that you missed at least one queen cell in the hive that was sealed. Fewer queen cells are indicative of supersedure and not the swarming impulse.

 

[plumberman]

Thanks for your input.- apart from this (?solitary - I was fairly thorough) QC, it all looked fairly business as usual, with eggs rather than larvae present. I am going to split them irrespective as there are about at least 12 deeps with sealed brood on both sides, and lord knows where they are going to go when they emerge.