Found another swarm cell, didn't throw her in the pond this time :-)

[LittleGreyRabbit]

The first swarm stayed around on that tree for three days and then disappeared. I don't think they returned to the hive.

This afternoon I found on the top of a brood box frame one swarm cell that had been opened and resealed. I detached the cell from the frame and, instead of throwing it in the garden pond, placed it in the upturned hive roof while I inspected the rest of the frames. I found what might be a queen cell on the face of one of the frames and moved that frame and two frames of honey and two frames of worker brood/honey to the second hive.

I then started to reassemble the first hive and realised that two bees were working to release the new queen from the queen cell. The next bit happened so quickly: in the space of about 3 seconds, I picked up the cell, prepared to prise off the lid, realised that she was already out, went back to the upturned roof and picked up what I hope was the right bee on my hive tool and dropped her into the second hive.

I plugged the entrance of the second hive with twigs and plant stems, to keep the new queen in while I "get my bearings".

There seems to be quite a lot of young brood in the old brood box so am hopeful that the workers will raise a new queen for the old hive. So old colony may not be doomed.

As I wasn't expecting to have to perform an artificial swarm, didn't do that moving the hives around thing but I suppose I could still do that before I unplug the entrance to the second hive, if it is necessary.

Comments welcome.

 

[RoofTops]

Handling ripe queen cells often causes the queen to emerge. I gently touched the tip of a sealed queen cell with my hive tool today and the new queen shot out like a rabbit out of a burrow!

 

[Midland Beek]

I plugged the entrance of the second hive with twigs and plant stems, to keep the new queen in while I "get my bearings".

There seems to be quite a lot of young brood in the old brood box so am hopeful that the workers will raise a new queen for the old hive. So old colony may not be doomed..

So, the second hive has a virgin queen? That's not a bad outcome. I don't really get the blocking the entrance thing. I guess it is just a case of giving them their chance and hoping for some good mating weather.

For the workers to raise a new queen from larvae via the emergency queen method they need larvae that are not more than 3 days old. When they do this they typically make lots of queen cells. That said, you know I would not be inclined to open them up and start destroying any, even the weedy ones. Again, give them their chance.

What is the balance in bee numbers like? Both colonies need to be viable. Note that any forager bee will go back to to the stand that they have been flying from.