From starvation-concern to swarm-concern in 1 week!

[Icing Sugar]

The weather has not been great round these parts recently. I last considered it warm and dry enough to perform a bee inspection on 21 April. The hive looked in good shape at that time, with 7 frames of healthy brood and no queen cups. There was about one solid frame of honey in the brood box. There had been no interest whatsoever in the super I had put on after the inspection one week earlier.

It rained so heavily for so long that I got worried about the size of the honey store (I have had my bees less than a year and still have a lot to learn, such as how quickly they get through honey in April, etc. They were a July swarm and I am pretty confident that there was a supersedure before the winter). I therefore fed the bees concentrated syrup. They took down 8 pints.

This evening was my first opportunity to take a peek inside since 21 April. The foundation is now being drawn in the super. In the brood box, there are 9 frames of healthy brood, nicely arranged and covered by loads of house bees and a few drones. Whilst both worker and drone brood are present, they are not mixed together. From that angle, everything looks spot on! However, there were about 8 sealed queen cells scattered across the frames, mainly at the bottom of the frames but also in a hole in the foundation of one of the frames. There were also a few unsealed queen cells with larvae in. The distribution of these cells suggested to me that a swarm might be imminent rather than them being emergency cells. As it has been so long since my last inspection, I suppose the departure of the old unclipped queen might be imminent. I have no confident idea of the earliest departure time.



I spent about 20 minutes searching the brood frames for the queen bee so that I could do an artificial swarm, for which I had everything ready. However I could not find her. Using a second (empty) brood box I then divided the brood frames into pairs, left them for a couple of minutes and then looked on the inner surfaces of each pair in turn. I still could not find her. However one of the pairs of frames clearly attracted a lot more worker bees than the others.



After such a long inspection in borderline-cold conditions, loads of the bees were vibrating about en masse. Many others were using their Nasonov glands. Large numbers of bees congregated on the outside of the hive, completely covering one side of it and about half-covering two others. I simply shut the hive up and after about half an hour they had returned into the hive.



QUESTIONS



Based on my hive inspection on 21 April at which there were not even any queen cups, am I right in thinking that the earliest the hive will swarm is probably 7 May (i.e. 16 days later)?



Should I open up the hive tomorrow morning and attempt an artificial swarm… even if it is cold and rainy? What temperature would be considered too cold to do this? How much rain would be considered too heavy to do this?



If I can’t find the queen during the inspection and (using a spare empty brood box again) divide all of the frames once more into pairs, can I assume that the queen is somewhere on the pair of frames that attracts all the workers to it (if this phenomenon happens again)? If I make this assumption, can I then split the hive by putting those two frames (minus their queen cells) in the new brood box?



I am supposed to go away tomorrow morning and will only return late on 7 May. Might I need to cancel or delay this trip in order to prevent a swarm?



I have placed a bait hive (with new foundation in old but cleaned-up frames, plus a good sprinkling of lemongrass oil) about 2 metres away from my single hive described above. What is the likelihood that any swarm from my hive will simply relocate to the bait hive?



Might my recent feeding of syrup have actually given the bees the food they needed to prepare to swarm?



Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Polyanwood]

My best guess is that something happened to the queen at your last inspection. If she was killed, then the hive would have sealed queen cells today. She might have swarmed, but if she did there would be many fewer bees.

Were there eggs today?

Was there young unsealed brood?

If you say No to both, you are probably queenless and then most people would remove sealed QCs and leave one or two unsealed ones with fat larvae in them.

Over feeding doesn't make them swarm, but does encourage them to.

 

[tonybloke]

if the weather was nice yesterday or today, I reckon sh'e gone!
best to create a couple of splits, leaving one ( or 2, up to you) fat, long qc in each half.

 

[oliver90owner]

I suppose the departure of the old unclipped queen might be imminent.

and

I am pretty confident that there was a supersedure before the winter

Don't equate to well.

If they superceded, did the new queen get mated or thrown out?

If the old queen was there, and was clipped, it is likely they tried to swarm (when the first queen cells were capped) and the queen was lost. Hence your difficulty in finding her?

Apart from that, can't be looking for other scenarios on the information posted.

RAB

 

[Icing Sugar]

Thanks for the thoughts so far, and please accept my apologies if my descriptions are not as sharp as they ought to be. They are so many terms and concepts for a newbie to get their head around!

There was quite a lot of unsealed brood in nice concentric rings on the frames. Both the presence of that and the increase in frames covered with brood (from 7 to 9 since the previous inspection) made me think that the queen was not damaged at the last inspection. I must confess that I did not specifically look for eggs because I was so focused on trying to find the queen tonight in order to perform an artificial swarm. (I didn't want to make the inspection any longer than I had to because I did not want to chill the brood). However, I did note that there was a fair bit of pollen store, despite all the rain.

By "old unclipped queen", I meant the queen that resulted from the supersedure last autumn. I take your point that she is not really "old". I saw her just once during an inspection before the winter, but didn't mark or clip her on that occasion. I wish I had done now, because my workers never seem to form a visually obvious "retinue" of bees grooming and feeding the queen, as seen in the photographs of all good bee books! I haven’t developed an eye for spotting her yet. I have assumed that every egg laid in the hive this side of Christmas has come from one queen in the hive that is perhaps 7or 8 months old.

My impression is that the density of bees in the brood box has increased with every inspection during 2012, including today’s. This gave me hope that the colony has not yet swarmed.

I suppose the bees do actually come out to forage at every opportunity, and I just don't see them doing so when I am at work. I shared my concern about all of the recent rain with one of my neighbours (a keen gardener with a large garden) and reflected that my bees would not have been able to forage very much at all recently. She assured me that they had been very busy indeed in her garden whenever it had been dry enough (apparently she has had loads more bees in the garden since the arrival of my hive). The arrangement of the sealed queen cells in my brood box is not "text book" for emergency cells, and I doubt that a supersedure is necessary just 8 months or so after the last one. Therefore I was working on the basis of an imminent swarm… and that the urge to swarm was an indicator of a healthy, thriving colony (…or a swarmy colony).

Unless the weather is absolutely terrible, I will try to find the queen tomorrow morning and perform an artificial swarm. I might need to do this at about 7.30a.m.. What is the lowest ambient temperature that it would be safe for me to do this procedure at, assuming that it takes me about 20 minutes to go through the frames and find the queen? Likewise, is it safe for me to do an artificial swarm if it is lightly drizzling with rain? What is the rain threshold at which one would definitely not open up the hive? Would you agree that I cannot simply do nothing until late in the day on 7 May?

 

[rae]

However, there were about 8 sealed queen cells scattered across the frames, mainly at the bottom of the frames but also in a hole in the foundation of one of the frames. There were also a few unsealed queen cells with larvae in. The distribution of these cells suggested to me that a swarm might be imminent rather than them being emergency cells. As it has been so long since my last inspection, I suppose the departure of the old unclipped queen might be imminent. I have no confident idea of the earliest departure time.

8 sealed queen cells - she's likely to be long gone by now.

Above 10C you will be fine if you are quick. At this stage I would simply split the queen cells between the existing hive and the AS target, leaving one, or at most two in each.

 

[Cazza]

I have placed a bait hive (with new foundation in old but cleaned-up frames, plus a good sprinkling of lemongrass oil) about 2 metres away from my single hive described above. What is the likelihood that any swarm from my hive will simply relocate to the bait hive?

QUOTE]

Although it's probably too late this time, it's very unlikely but not impossible that the swarm would relocate a few yards away. A much better idea would be to put a bait hive 300m away, perhaps in someone else's garden?
Cazza

 

[drstitson]

swarms happen just before/around point of sealing of first cells. weather permitting.
so mix of sealed and unsealed and no queen found = swarmed. probably in the nicer weather at start of week.

if clipped then she's gone. bees will have returned.
if unlcipped then queen and swarm will have gone.

 

[oliver90owner]

Apols. Can't read properly . Too much of a rush. Clipped - unclipped, somehow the 'un' didn't register....

RAB

 

[Hebeegeebee]

When a swarm leaves there is usually lots of sealed brood in the hive and so after just a few days the hive can still look full - its an easy mistake to make to believe that the colony hasn't swarmed.

I rarely see a retinue of bees around the queen either!

If you see queencells you also need to look for eggs and the brood development as well as the queen:-

Eggs 3 days
Larvae 6 days
Sealed Larvae 12 day
Total 21 days. Remember the doubling of times.
By looking at the brood you can see when the queen last laid eggs. (A guess will do as far as open brood is concerned). Often a queen will stop laying for a few days before swarming. A bunch of sealed queencells after decent weather is pretty sure to mean that a swarm has gone.

 

[drstitson]

"Based on my hive inspection on 21 April at which there were not even any queen cups, am I right in thinking that the earliest the hive will swarm is probably 7 May (i.e. 16 days later)?"

NOOOOOO!

You need to do some basic reading around the subject. I'd recommend the usual texts AND the welsh booklet.