Do queens stop laying a day or so before swarming?

[freethorpe bees]

Your thoughts/experiences please.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Generally I would say yes as the worker bees slim down the queen ready to fly by reducing her feed I believe. How long before swarming I do not know!
The only queen I have seen just prior to a swarm was also moving about the frame she was on a lot faster!

 

[freethorpe bees]

Thanks YB, I thought I'd read it somewhere. A friends bees ( not mine honest!) swarmed Sunday and the hive she suspected they came from had no sign of eggs.

 

[Finman]

.
When the queen's wing isclipped, and hive has no eggs, it is a sign that queen is gone and swarm returned. Otherwise hive has allways eggs.

If queen is not clipped, prime swarm has gone, if hive has no eggs.

So it goes.

If you brake queen cells and you believe that bees give up swarming, the queen become slimmer and reduce really much laying.

 

[busybee53]

Inspection on 22nd May showed hardly any eggs and little space to lay them. Five days later I returned with a second brood box to give more space. By then there was a charged queen cell plus a sealed one. The queen was also present. At first I wondered why the queen was still around if there was a sealed cell present (yes there was a larvae inside).

Then I realised that they like to swarm around lunch time. It was 11 a.m. Anyway the point I wanted to make was that the queen was pretty near to swarming and she did not look any slimmer than usual and I am used to seeing her because I went a bit over the top with marking. (When I asked the bee inspector if she could see the queen the inspector said "like a lighthouse".)

 

[Tom Bick]

To me the queen defiantly reduces laying prior to swarming and this will vary on the queen.

When you think about it will be in the bees best interest to keep her laying although reduced but laying all the same.

 

[oliver90owner]

By then there was a charged queen cell plus a sealed one. The queen was also present.

Perhaps this was a supercedure event?

The queen is always slimmed down to reduce her lay-rate before the swarm leaves. She may have to fly some distance to the new home, not just a quick circuit around the hive as she would do if taking to the wing during an inspection. Also she may be hanging around in a swarm for a few days before moving to the new quarters; she would not want to be full of eggs during that time!

 

[busybee53]

O90O Yep I thought of of that after my post. Didn't occur to me at the time because she was laying like mad and the brood box was completely filled at the previous inspection. I did not give more space because I wanted another good queen like her and was hoping for proper queen cells. Maybe I just saw what I wanted to see. Either way she is in a nuc now and they will be able to make me another queen like their mum.

I still have no idea why they would want to replace such a good queen but I bow to their greater knowledge.

 

[oliver90owner]

I still have no idea why they would want to replace such a good queen but I bow to their greater knowledge.

Queen pheromone, or lack of it? Age? Preparations for swarming, if this queen has already swarmed before?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I still have no idea why they would want to replace such a good queen but I bow to their greater knowledge.

That's bees for you - had a marvelously productive 2011 queen last year, I'd earmarked her for producing stock for nucs this year, going like a bomb into the autumn - but she was superseded. they must have known something i didn't

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

they must have known something i didn't

one of the reasons we love you so much on the Forum, jenkinsbrynmair, is the innocent way in which you leave yourself so wide open.......

Dusty

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

one of the reasons we love you so much on the Forum, jenkinsbrynmair, is the innocent way in which you leave yourself so wide open.......

Dusty

well, it's hard being superior all the time, so like St Francis I try to lower myself to others' level now and again