Grafting.

[mbc]

Swarmed ? did they have sealed cells ?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Couple of open one's i left from the day before when i caged the queen,due to be capped within hours,which they were by yesterday....knew they were going to swarm by simply looking at the queen,thats why i caged her, even though she is clipped. After they have raised some grafted cells the colony will be broke up into nuc's with new queens,non from this queen though.

 

[mbc]

interesting that they should try to swarm before the cells were cealed - makes a mockery of conventional thoughts on swarm prevention inspection timings

 

[Hivemaker.]

Two cells were sealed when they swarmed yesterday,open the day before.

 

[mbc]

got it , there were cealed cells by the time they swarmed. Are bees that have prepared to swarm in the best condition for raising cells ?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Are bees that have prepared to swarm in the best condition for raising cells ?

Yes,very good for this job,raise exellent well fed cells.

 

[beekeeping4you]

interesting that they should try to swarm before the cells were cealed - makes a mockery of conventional thoughts on swarm prevention inspection timings

They swarm (weather permitting) when the first queen cell is capped - normally the one that you did not notice - with lots of other cells still unsealed and open in various stages of development.
In the late 90ties I've seen mellifera colonies swarm leaving only eggs in some queen cups for the remaining bees in an out apiary that had a acarine problem.
Regards
Reiner