cluster of bees under the hive - whats going on ?

[awb]

I am relatively new to beekeeping.
Here is the story:
I hived a swarm last year.
2-3 weeks ago I inspected the colony, found the queen, marked her and clipped one wing.
There were a few queen cups in the hive, with no eggs / larva in them, I left them alone.
5 days ago the colony swarmed. The swarm settled in a bush 10 meters from the hive for about 20 minutes then as I was trying to capure it, they all went back to the hive and settled on the outside of the hive.
After about 60 minutes most of the bees went back into the hive; all but about a tennis ball - sized cluster of bees that have remained on the bottom (underneith the floor) of the hive.
The hive seems as strong as it was before the swarm and no known swarms since.
Questions are :
Is the cluster on the bottom of the hive what remains of the prime swarm, and presumably contains the old queen?
I presume that I will now have a new queen (? queens) in the hive?
Do I need to do anything?, are they likely to swarm again?
Any advice greatly appriciated.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Since your queen was clipped she is almost certainly in that cluster below the hive.
Since she swarmed there will be sealed Q cells in the hive.
If it was me I would make up a two frame nuc with the queen and remove all but one queen cells from the hive.
(Just one of many suggestions to come)

 

[Finman]

Since your queen was clipped she is almost certainly in that cluster below the hive.
Since she swarmed there will be sealed Q cells in the hive.
If it was me I would make up a two frame nuc with the queen and remove all but one queen cells from the hive.
(Just one of many suggestions to come) ��

How do you cut the swarming fever from the hive, it it has Queen cells?
Leaving one Queen cell is not enough.

You must do an AS with clipped Queen or with Queen cell, if you do not have laying Queen.
.

 

[jeff33]

I would do the same. Boost the nuc with a 1 frame of emerging brood. If you put it back and they will swarm again.

 

[oliver90owner]

Finny is correct. Nothing has changed. Still all the bees, likely still the same queen, but on the outside.

To give more detail of the procedure:

They will likely swarm with a new queen, so move the hive to one side, install the old queen in the replacement hive, on the old position, with a frame of brood and hopefully all the foragers will join her. Artificially swarmed.

Moving the old parent colony to the other side of the old queen part, just before the new queen emerges, will weaken the parent colony of more workers. That should prevent any cast swarms, should more than a single queen cell be present. You may not have that option.

Removing all but one capped queen cell runs the risk of a dud cell. Bees are not stupid - they do not leave one quuen cell when they swarm, do they?

 

[awb]

Many thanks, for the advice. The old queen died last night, it got down to 3-4'C last night here, and she had been out 5 nights, found her dead with a handful of works under the hive. No eggs in the hive.
Just done a AS with a large sealed queen cell, 2 full frames of capped brood and some very angry bees; and left one, I think, sealed queen cell in the original hive. Hope it works, thanks.

 

[Karsal]

I am relatively new to beekeeping.
Here is the story:
I hived a swarm last year.
2-3 weeks ago I inspected the colony, found the queen, marked her and clipped one wing.
There were a few queen cups in the hive, with no eggs / larva in them, I left them alone.
5 days ago the colony swarmed. The swarm settled in a bush 10 meters from the hive for about 20 minutes then as I was trying to capure it, they all went back to the hive and settled on the outside of the hive.
After about 60 minutes most of the bees went back into the hive; all but about a tennis ball - sized cluster of bees that have remained on the bottom (underneith the floor) of the hive.
The hive seems as strong as it was before the swarm and no known swarms since.
Questions are :
Is the cluster on the bottom of the hive what remains of the prime swarm, and presumably contains the old queen?
I presume that I will now have a new queen (? queens) in the hive?
Do I need to do anything?, are they likely to swarm again?
Any advice greatly appriciated.

I've just had a colony with a large swarm underneath the OMF today. Managed to get the lot into a nuc only to see them all fly off and disappear. Looking inside the nuc I saw only 6 or 7 bees and I couldn't believe it one was a small virgin queen. She was on the top of a frame and bugger me flew onto an adjacent hive and disappeared inside!!!
An hour later the swarm arrived back and re entered the hive they had come from.
I'll wait and see now what develops.

 

[beeno]

I've just had a colony with a large swarm underneath the OMF today. Managed to get the lot into a nuc only to see them all fly off and disappear. Looking inside the nuc I saw only 6 or 7 bees and I couldn't believe it one was a small virgin queen. She was on the top of a frame and bugger me flew onto an adjacent hive and disappeared inside!!!
An hour later the swarm arrived back and re entered the hive they had come from.
I'll wait and see now what develops.

Could be another cast on the way if they swarmed with a virgin. Put your ear to the hive and listen out for piping!

 

[Karsal]

I've just had a colony with a large swarm underneath the OMF today. Managed to get the lot into a nuc only to see them all fly off and disappear. Looking inside the nuc I saw only 6 or 7 bees and I couldn't believe it one was a small virgin queen. She was on the top of a frame and bugger me flew onto an adjacent hive and disappeared inside!!!
An hour later the swarm arrived back and re entered the hive they had come from.
I'll wait and see now what develops.

I should have also said that I'd done a full inspection of the colony and found just a couple of queen cells and a frame fully laid up with eggs.
Just wondered why they swarmed with the virgin queen and not the old queen as the hive was still full to bursting with bees.
I presumed she was still inside the hive.

 

[Beefriendly]

They may have swarmed with both the old Queen and a virgin or even several virgins on occasions.

 

[Finman]

.
Basic idea is that primary swarm goes with old queen, and its habit is not to find a new hive under the old hive. Cut wing must be the reason.

Next, the colony waits for first energed virgin, and primary + cast gang goes with the new queen. The old queen may try with them and may return to home with its cut wing. Period between swarms is about a week.

Mostly cut wing queen will be abandoned into lawn. Bees do not mind about a queen which cannot fly. Useless queen such one which cannot follow swarm.

This basics. They surely find their variations, because their normal course is disturbed.
.

 

[Finman]

.
The swarm is keen to one certain queen or virgin, and if you try to change it during the swarming, the gang returns to home. Swarm may have several virgins after bad weathers. And then they try to morrow again.