Artificial Swarm may have gone pear shaped

[skaj]

This morning I tried to do an artificial swarm (as a means of varroa control rather than queen cells being present)

I found my Queen, put her aside and put all the bees and brood in their respective boxes. I then took the Queen and tried to put her in with the bees but I think she jumped/flew away. I lost track of her and not sure whether she landed back in the box or flew over the fence.

For the last few hours the bees have been flying back and forth with a few congregating on the outside of the hive (maybe because it's hot).

How do I know if they are queenless? Would I expect to see a clump of bees surronding the queen if she was outside of the hive - almost like a swarm?

Should I be patient and wait the suggested week and then check?

Also worried that she might have flown back into the hive but stuck on the wrong side of the queen excluder!! She could have also flown back into the box with the brood in!

Any thoughts?

thanks

 

[RoofTops]

If you have put a queen excluder under the brood box of foundation then I suggest removing it.

All you can do now is wait. If there is no queen in the box with brood the bees will raise queen cells, assuming they have eggs or very young larva. Do not let them seal more than one queen cell, remove all the others if possible. It may not produce the best queen, but it will be a queen. To be extra sure you could split the brood into say 2 nucs and improve your chances.

If the queen has survived you should be able to tell if you look for eggs in 4 days times. Where there are eggs you have a queen.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Certainly keep an eye out for a small clump of bees in the vicinity before it gets too dark/cold.

If stuck the wrong side of the QX you'll see eggs in a few days (assuming you mean she may have flown back in while the box was dissassembled)

 

[melormynydd]

hi skaj,
is the queen marked? if she is you could go through the hive again tomorow, and you would probablly be able to find her.
if not marked, i would leave for 4 days and then go through the hive and check for eggs. (eggs are there for 3 days befor they hatch in to larvey so after 4 days u can be sure that, if there are no eggs queen is dead, if eggs are present queen is there and no probs)
if queen is dead, at that time u will also have queen cells. you can then destroy all but one queen cell(leave one that is far from being ready to be caped as this cell will have a younger larvey in it and so hopfully be a beter queen after mating)
if u have many queen cells u could also make up a nuc with another queen cell as insurance(incase the first queen dose not mate, u have a spare)
hope it works out

 

[melormynydd]

..

 

[melormynydd]

sorry RT, im a slow writer and didnt check thred before posting

 

[MuswellMetro]

how did you put the queen aside,


i put her in a nuc on the frame she is on, while i rearrange the broods, then walk her off the frame withh a bit of smoke into the middle of two brood frame if she is not the correct stage of brood i want

 

[skaj]

Found her!!

She was in the correct place all the time - must have jump up and gone straight down again.

Really surprised how quickly they draw out comb when there is no brood to feed.

Now just going to let them get on with it and not interfere for a while.

thanks to you for all your help