From 1 to 4 hives in a week - what now?

[John R]

Last Sunday i split my colony into 2, it was getting V large and it was a double BB. I moved the queen and young bee's with brood and stores, the old hive also had plenty of brood and stores left. At this point I saw no queen cells but didn't check every frame.

All well till Monday night, then I had a swarm from the new hive with the queen, I caught the swarm and rehomed them. They stayed put in the new hive so I then had 3 hives.. Lovely thought I, there was still a lot of bees in the 2nd hive and original hive and hive number 3 with the queen had plenty too.
The Tuesday I get another swarm, again I catch it, just about enough gear to get a home for them, no idea which hive it came from, and I live miles from any other bee keeperso think it was mine. so I now have hive number 4.

They are all working well, drawing out comb and some pollen coming in, I'm also chucking some feed into hives 3 & 4 tp play safe which they are taking down.
This afternoon I check things:
Hive 1 has queen cells, lots of bees and stores - took the QC's to 1 in this hive
Hive 2, where I split out the queen into originally, lots of bees, stores and a queen cell
Hive 3, plenty of bees, taking down the feed, no brood and couldn't see a queen - now worried they are queenless
Hive 4, as hive 3 - I had a spare frame with brood and QC from hive 1, so put this in, trying to give them a queen for the future.
Having read the posts on swarms etc today I'm not sure what I've done is right, hive 3 and 4 are my concern - any help will be really appreciated, I've only had bees 1 year and this is deep end stuff for me to cope with..

 

[BBG]

You can always combine the best with the laggards later.

Following correct procedures, naturally.

 

[REDWOOD]

Hive 3 and 4 could be a cast swarm and could take 3 weeks before brood is seen

 

[Hivemaker.]

From 1 to 4 hives in a week - what now?

Make sure you have plenty of spare hives to use,and move to London,they have unlimited forage for bees there.

 

[John R]

Hive 3 and 4 could be a cast swarm and could take 3 weeks before brood is seen

Thanks for feedback
If they are cast swarms can I leave the queen cell in hive 4 that I put in there today and if there is a queen I can't find they will sort it out?
What is the risk of leaving well alone for 3 weeks, will they clear off if queenless with no young eggs to create a queen from? I don't know the score with queenless bees and risks.
If I need to combine hives 3 and 4 if only a single queen in 1 of them when should I do this, how long after queen hatches?

 

[John R]

From 1 to 4 hives in a week - what now?

Make sure you have plenty of spare hives to use,and move to London,they have unlimited forage for bees there.

Yes - lesson learned there, so much for keeping a couple of spare bits handy, wasn't enough so have now bought 2 more ply hives....

 

[MuswellMetro]

From 1 to 4 hives in a week - what now?

Make sure you have plenty of spare hives to use,and move to London,they have unlimited forage for bees there.

Well the London BKA would disagree with unlimited forage

There are i think over foraged areas especially in Central London with the multitude of roof top hives installed to tick the companies sustainability and Green agenda boxes

I have recently helped place a hive on the roof of a Quaker meeting house near Trafalgar Square and there is little forage around except Lime Trees to provide bulk forage...no autumn ivy , no brambles, it just exotic in parks and Buckingham palace gardens.....a bit like having a hive in the middle of a golf course, looks green and lovely but rather barren and flower free

however the suburbs are another matter

 

[Torq]

Yes - lesson learned there, so much for keeping a couple of spare bits handy, wasn't enough so have now bought 2 more ply hives....

Same here, you can never have enough kit! Had 3 colonies in december, bought 3 spare brood boxes and 6 supers. One colony didn't make it into spring but now all 6 brood boxes are in use!

 

[REDWOOD]

Thanks for feedback
If they are cast swarms can I leave the queen cell in hive 4 that I put in there today and if there is a queen I can't find they will sort it out?
What is the risk of leaving well alone for 3 weeks, will they clear off if queenless with no young eggs to create a queen from? I don't know the score with queenless bees and risks.
If I need to combine hives 3 and 4 if only a single queen in 1 of them when should I do this, how long after queen hatches?

If the hive is queen right with a virgin queen the bees will rip the queen cells down unless they are still in swarm mode

 

[John R]

If the hive is queen right with a virgin queen the bees will rip the queen cells down unless they are still in swarm mode

Ok, so it seems the right thing to do to have put it in at least as a fail safe.
I had to check hive 3 again, this is the one without any sign of a queen, QC and no brood, this was from a swarm from hive 1 or 2. I haven't got any fresh brood to put in on a frame to let them build a QC, Would you get a queen to put in here rather than trying to unite with another hive, I was thinking of picking one up on Thursday?

 

[george]

I have hives on a golf course MM , they do well on wild plum , blackthorn in Spring , crab apple and cherry a bit later on . Sycamore , Lime a plenty then Blackberry and ivy . Not sure why you would think that wouldnt be enough .
Far from being a green desert I would prefer to be where I am than the middle of a farm any day of the week .
G

 

[Greatbigchicken]

Ok, so it seems the right thing to do to have put it in at least as a fail safe.
I had to check hive 3 again, this is the one without any sign of a queen, QC and no brood, this was from a swarm from hive 1 or 2. I haven't got any fresh brood to put in on a frame to let them build a QC, Would you get a queen to put in here rather than trying to unite with another hive, I was thinking of picking one up on Thursday?

I'm still quite new to all this too, but you sound like are in a very similar situation to me. I'd advise you to wait and be patient. I thought 2 of my collonys (swarm and a/s) may have been q-, but I waited and soon saw pollen coming in and pollished cells, now both have beautiful laying queens.

If for any reason your hive 3 is q- you can always reunite with one of the others, but I would give it a couple of weeks first.

 

[John R]

I'm still quite new to all this too, but you sound like are in a very similar situation to me. I'd advise you to wait and be patient. I thought 2 of my collonys (swarm and a/s) may have been q-, but I waited and soon saw pollen coming in and pollished cells, now both have beautiful laying queens.

If for any reason your hive 3 is q- you can always reunite with one of the others, but I would give it a couple of weeks first.

Seems like things have become slightly easier for me here, checked hives again yesterday, hive 4 - last to one I put a swarm/cast into, I had put in a frame of brood and QC, but found the original queen from hive 1 in there yesterday - so removed the QC and frame to go into hive 3, which is Q-. Not sure of the QC quality, have seen much better ones previously, but we'll see.
So at least I have the original Q in hive 4 which is a relief, no eggs yet though but maybe she needs to settle down again, plenty of feed too in hives.
Hives 1 and 2 have a good QC in each, should hatch out over next couple of days with luck. I intend to leave hives 1, 2, 4 alone now for a month, will check hive 3 on weekend to establish if QC has delivered, if not I'll probably buy in a queen for it?
Have spent the last day getting all my spare hive BB's, empty frames cleaned down, never thought I would need so much stuff. I bought some ex-commercial hives when I first started, although they are great for really deep BB's and supers, they have 3 different frame sizes, a real pain to manage, so have now bought a couple of National ply hives from fragile planet, put them together and painted them up, I'm very impressed with them and now have enough of National frame hives and commercial frame hives to play around with.
Although moving from 1 to 4 hives in a week has been a worry, I would say it's the best way to learn by a mile, and having this forum and my books to fall back on each time something comes up is a massive help, so thanks to those out there offering the advice, not so sure about people who post replies to threads like mine saying random things like "move to london" which has nothing to do with this thread and simply diverts things onto other subjects in the thread that moves away from the area we newbees need advice on?