Artificial swarm attempt gone wrong

[amandaj57]

Can anyone advise me please, One of my hives is a monster, Its on two brood boxes and 3 supers and has been preparing to swarm. I have been unable to find the queen due to the volume of bees so followed the method suggested in my books of putting a frame of eggs and brood in a new hive on the old site with the supers and moving the rest of the hive so the flying bees return to the old site, but something seems to have gone wrong - the flying bees seem to have shifted with the hive. The flying bees returned to the old site then came back out of the hive and located the new site, I now have a very full hive on the new site and hardly any bees in the old site - any suggestions, should I try moving the hive further away? I dont think my bees read the bee books! Thanks

 

[Jonathan]

How far away did you move it? Less than 3 feet or maybe even a little more and they won't go back to the original site but will move with the old hive.

 

[amandaj57]

I moved just over about 4 feet, which has never been a problem before. I wondered if the volume of bees in there all fanning like mad in the entrance had a stronger draw than average. I'm just not sure how to rectify the situation. If I move it further its going to make it difficult for the second move next week but if I don't its like the artificial swarm didn't really happen.

 

[nonstandard]

I did an A/S last week, I moved the hive about 3 1/2 feet and put the queen, a frame of stores, a frame of brood with covering bees and foundation on the old site. As I did the A/S quite late in the day most of the flying bees were in the moved hive and I expected them to change hives once they started flying in the morning.

Unfortunately they did their own thing and stayed where they were, the upshot of all this is that the queen and nurse bees have survived the week rattling around in a 14x12 (thankfully the weather has been kind) but as I did the second hive move yesterday they have now been joined by lots of flying bees.

I'm guessing that maybe the move should have been done earlier in the day, and the hive moved a little further away, the other issue may have been that the two hives are quite different in colour which may have added to the problem.

 

[oliver90owner]

Move the hive so it is adjacent the old site. Then when bees are accustomed to that, move it around the other side or away. In other words, do it again.

RAB

 

[MuswellMetro]

perhpas turn it 180 degrees as well

 

[Midland Beek]

You might just have a very high number of young bees that have never flown.

 

[MuswellMetro]

How far away did you move it? Less than 3 feet or maybe even a little more and they won't go back to the original site but will move with the old hive.

well the Dark Sides May Newsletter no 189 says 33ft (10m), if i did that with all my hives i would be across the other side of the field

 

[nonstandard]

well the Dark Sides May Newsletter no 189 says 33ft (10m)

That threw me a bit too, off the top of my head I'm sure Ted Hooper and Alan Campion (Bees at the bottom of the Garden) say 3ft but with a second move after a week.

 

[Arfermo]

Can anyone advise me please, One of my hives is a monster, Its on two brood boxes and 3 supers and has been preparing to swarm. I have been unable to find the queen due to the volume of bees so followed the method suggested in my books of putting a frame of eggs and brood in a new hive on the old site with the supers and moving the rest of the hive so the flying bees return to the old site, but something seems to have gone wrong - the flying bees seem to have shifted with the hive. The flying bees returned to the old site then came back out of the hive and located the new site, I now have a very full hive on the new site and hardly any bees in the old site - any suggestions, should I try moving the hive further away? I dont think my bees read the bee books! Thanks

Sounds to me as if you didn't put the queen into the new box along with the frame of brood, nurse bees and flyers, etc. The point of A/S is that flying bees will fly back to where the queen is and if you didn't move her to the new box, that is exactly what they did. Try again and while you are about it if you happen to see the queen, trap her and clip her wings would be sensible IMHO.

 

[amandaj57]

Thanks for all the adivice but still not working, the queen is definately not in the new hive, plenty of queen cells appeared and there are now no eggs or young larvae. I moved the hive again first thing in the morning. I moved it several metres in the opposite direction with another hive in between. I thought I had it cracked as the flying bees initially went to the old site but towards the end of the day the new hive bees were at the entrance fanning like crazy and the flying bees from the original site came out and relocated again - they seem determined they are staying together. I thought at first they might be robbing but a quick check of the stores shows them to be as they were. I've reduced the queen cells to one in the new hive and I think all I can do is keep my fingers crossed unless anyone has any better ideas.