I have not kept bees for about 20 years, but this year decded to capture a swarm. The swarm of its own volition, took up residence in a National brood box with 2 frames of empty, drawn brood. I t was a reasonable sized swarm, so a day after arrival I put in 10 frames of foundation. I did not wish to disturb them further, so did no further inspection. The bees have been in residence for 7 days and have been busy coming and going with purpose throughout.
Witnessing the activity I think there must be a good nectar flow. Today we have had some stormy, humid weather with a couple of heavy showers, even so there has been lots of coming and going actvity, but ths evening, I have just noticed a cluster of bees on the ground outside the hive, even durng rain; the cluster is about the size of a coffee mug and every so often a bee wll leave the group and fly into the hive entrance, so they are not dead and they are not crawlers. They look like a very small swarm. My thoughts are (a.) A Virgin queen has left the hive to mate and has faled to get away or return successfully. (b) A 2nd queen has left the hive or been evicted. Or (c) Something else. It is currently too dark and too wet to inspect the hive and anyway I am not sure what this will tell me, unless I can fnd a queen. I suspect there may not yet be any eggs or brood, if the swarm had a virgin queen. In which case, havng no other colony may be stuffed! Can anyone offer any knowledge on what might be gong on?
Ian
Witnessing the activity I think there must be a good nectar flow. Today we have had some stormy, humid weather with a couple of heavy showers, even so there has been lots of coming and going actvity, but ths evening, I have just noticed a cluster of bees on the ground outside the hive, even durng rain; the cluster is about the size of a coffee mug and every so often a bee wll leave the group and fly into the hive entrance, so they are not dead and they are not crawlers. They look like a very small swarm. My thoughts are (a.) A Virgin queen has left the hive to mate and has faled to get away or return successfully. (b) A 2nd queen has left the hive or been evicted. Or (c) Something else. It is currently too dark and too wet to inspect the hive and anyway I am not sure what this will tell me, unless I can fnd a queen. I suspect there may not yet be any eggs or brood, if the swarm had a virgin queen. In which case, havng no other colony may be stuffed! Can anyone offer any knowledge on what might be gong on?
Ian
