nubee
New Bee
Three days ago bees from one of my hives swarmed up into a tree. I called my local experienced beekeeper (I am only a 2nd year) as it was 15 feet up. By the time he arrived it had gone back onto the front of the hive, and back inside. He kindly went through my hive and two nucs that I had started the previous week when I had seen queen cells in the hive, I had been keen to make increase. In the hive we found a virgin queen (no eggs) so then put two frames of brood (one with a qc) and a frame of honey into a new hive, replacing the frames with new. All other qcs were removed. That hive has a nearly full super and another with a little honey.
All looked ok for the past two days, activity in the hives, nuclei, I have given the new colonies feed and in fact there are eggs in one of the nuclei (it is not impossible that I inadvertently put the unmarked queen in there last week).
Today, as soon as the sun came out so did a swarm, I'm 90% certain from the original hive, although I couldn't believe the size of the swarm as I thought we had effectively reduced the size of the colony, as well as giving it more space. We looked through the hive, still seemed plenty of bees, couldn't find the queen, no qcs and no eggs. As a precaution we put a frame of eggs in from the laying nuc as insurance.
We collected the swarm and put it in a new hive with the entrance reduced and with a feeder. I popped back every half hour or so and just saw a little activity. This evening I have popped back to check on the feeder..... And found the bees had gone. Any ideas/bets as to where the bees have gone? Are they back in the original hive, or have they moved on? What should I do next time (if there is a next time)? I hadn't planned to look into the hive for another three days when I planned to see if the colony had produced qcs, ie no queen, but should I look sooner if I think the swarm has returned..... Or would that give them itchy feet again?
All looked ok for the past two days, activity in the hives, nuclei, I have given the new colonies feed and in fact there are eggs in one of the nuclei (it is not impossible that I inadvertently put the unmarked queen in there last week).
Today, as soon as the sun came out so did a swarm, I'm 90% certain from the original hive, although I couldn't believe the size of the swarm as I thought we had effectively reduced the size of the colony, as well as giving it more space. We looked through the hive, still seemed plenty of bees, couldn't find the queen, no qcs and no eggs. As a precaution we put a frame of eggs in from the laying nuc as insurance.
We collected the swarm and put it in a new hive with the entrance reduced and with a feeder. I popped back every half hour or so and just saw a little activity. This evening I have popped back to check on the feeder..... And found the bees had gone. Any ideas/bets as to where the bees have gone? Are they back in the original hive, or have they moved on? What should I do next time (if there is a next time)? I hadn't planned to look into the hive for another three days when I planned to see if the colony had produced qcs, ie no queen, but should I look sooner if I think the swarm has returned..... Or would that give them itchy feet again?
