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gar1990

New Bee
Joined
Feb 6, 2022
Messages
15
Reaction score
5
Location
Belfast
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
4
Hi, So I was having a quick look at the bees today just to see how the supers were coming on. looked at two hives and they are doing very well three and two supers nearly filled. I went to check another hive which was a spilt in mid may using the nucleus method. This was in a nuc for a month and then has been in a full hive since mid june. It built very quickly and a took three capped brood frames from it as a nuc to boost the hive it came from (the one with three supers now) and to try to slow its growth. About two/tree weeks ago I noticed that it had nearly drawn all the frames in the full sized hive so I added a super. Last week the bees were in there drawing comb on around 4 frames.

I had a look this today and there were no bees in the super so I thought oh no, I'd better do a full inspection. on inspection there are no eggs and no young larva just some very large ones uncapped. so i reckon there has been no eggs laid for 7 days (3+4) as all brood will be capped at 8. there was one sealed queen cell and one well developed one which was uncapped. The queen has swarmed. I left just one queen cell and as there are no eggs etc there will be no emergency cells.

My confusion comes from having performed swarm control in may where this queen thinks that she has swarmed already, why did she do so again in July? she is a white queen
Is there anything else I could have done to prevent this? aside from inspections and Nucing it again.

Is it too late for this new queen cell to mate?

My other dilemma is that I have a nuc that is well developed now with 6 full frames, brood on them all and not much room. I have no other equipment to upgrade her to a full hive and cant currently get any more. is there anything I can do to prevent her swarming/ if she does will the Nuc be able to rear a sufficient quality of queen?

Many thanks

Gareth
 
It's not too late for her to mate.

Consider switching the bees between the nuc which needs space and the hive which has swarmed.

Regular inspections to detect and control swarming but we all miss some.

Not all brood is capped at day 8.
 
Splitting the queen away to a nuc does not stop the swarming instinct, sometimes it works, sometimes especially in good years, they will build up and try again.
As Wilco, bleed brood frames, it's not August yet so ample time for mating.
 
there was one sealed queen cell and one well developed one
That number sounds like supersedure, but colonies will swarm on supersedure in the swarm season.

If you prefer certainty, remove the QC and unite to the colony your strong nuc (and solve your equipment shortage at the same time).
 
Splitting the queen away to a nuc does not stop the swarming instinct, sometimes it works, sometimes especially in good years, they will build up and try again.
As Wilco, bleed brood frames, it's not August yet so ample time for mating.

This is a good trick to balance colonies, but make sure there's a flow on, or the outcome is fighting on a grand scale.

Just to clarify, my meaning was more to remove everything from the nuc, put the nuc box where the hive is transfer the hive contents to the nuc as only on four frames brood, then put the hive box where the nuc box was and put what were the contents of the nuc into the hive.

That way both have appropriate space in the short term while the OP waits to see if the new queen mates and decides what to do.
 

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