heres a question about swarming...

[biglongdarren]

say it was getting late in the year and a hive was preparing to swarm,what would happen if say the day when the queen cells were sealed, that the weather turned real bad and stayed bad for a week or so....would the old queen still leave or would they know the weathers gonna be bad and tear down the queens cells or what?

 

[Vergilius]

say it was getting late in the year and a hive was preparing to swarm

Bees rarely swarm after July/August and I'd assume that the rare late swarms only happen after a sustained period of warm weather anyway.


Ben P

 

[Finman]

.
If you have queen cells now in the hive, there is something wrong in recent queen. They are going to change it and you cannot stop them.

 

[Heather]

Ben, best swarm I collected this year- Sept 21st - don't know source- but filled 7 frames in brood box, little varroa drop, worked socks off till cold clustered them. Looking forward with great interest to evaluate them next Spring.

 

[Vergilius]

Ben, best swarm I collected this year- Sept 21st - don't know source- but filled 7 frames in brood box, little varroa drop, worked socks off till cold clustered them. Looking forward with great interest to evaluate them next Spring.

Have I got this all wrong? Do bees often swarm that late? Certainly never seen any QCs in mine after July... I seem to remember eating outside in a bout of unseasonal hot weather around the 20th...


Ben P

PS Is there an assoc meeting in Dec, school hols so I'll go if there is one.

 

[nonstandard]

Ben, best swarm I collected this year- Sept 21st - don't know source- but filled 7 frames in brood box, little varroa drop, worked socks off till cold clustered them. Looking forward with great interest to evaluate them next Spring.

Is it possible that it was a whole colony that had absconded? Apparently sometimes the fumes from apiguard can drive them off, mine were certainly hanging out of the front of the hive when I put the apiguard on and the weather suddenly warmed up.

 

[rowbow]

say it was getting late in the year and a hive was preparing to swarm,what would happen if say the day when the queen cells were sealed, that the weather turned real bad and stayed bad for a week or so....would the old queen still leave or would they know the weathers gonna be bad and tear down the queens cells or what?

I think the workers would take control of the situation and bide there time.
John

 

[For want of a better word]

say it was getting late in the year and a hive was preparing to swarm

Bees rarely swarm after July/August and I'd assume that the rare late swarms only happen after a sustained period of warm weather anyway.


Ben P

Had a "wild bunch" move into an empty WBC in early October last year,
black vitriolic nasty tempered little so and so bees too.....

out to sting even when offer warm syrup and later ate all my fondant..
then obsconded in early April !!!

flew low over house in a V formation before heading off in the direction of Cornwall

Bodmin Bovver Bees obviously!!!

 

[milkermel]

I have a swarm from early october last year they did really well this year, I made a few blunders, but they are really hard workers and made it through to this year

 

[For want of a better word]

I have a swarm from early october last year they did really well this year, I made a few blunders, but they are really hard workers and made it through to this year

That would bee them then........
sure I heard them humming TREWLANY..... must have forgotten the words!!

 

[oliver90owner]

say it was getting late in the year and a hive was preparing to swarm,what would happen if say the day when the queen cells were sealed,.....

'Late in the year' would make no difference.

It can happen any time in the year in Britain! Two or three days would make little odds. A week only getting close to emergence, so still time.

If after emergence, I would expect them to retain the first queen and the old swarming queen would leave ASAP, the workers keeping them apart, as Rowbow says. Wouldn't be sure though.

We have a very good climate - just lousy weather!

Regards, RAB

 

[TBRNoTB]

Over the River?

That would bee them then........
sure I heard them humming TREWLANY..... must have forgotten the words!!

Devon and Cornwall seem nearly as bad as Lanc's and the other lot, Yo....... no I can't even say it
Regards
TBRNoTB

 

[Stiffy]

That would bee them then........
sure I heard them humming TREWLANY..... must have forgotten the words!!

Must have been Devon bees as any good Cornish bees would have sung " And shall Trelawney live or shall Trelawney die here's 20,000 Cornish bees , not Trewlany!

Bit like Devon trying to make cream teas and pasties not a chance they could get it right.



S

 

[psafloyd]

Had a "wild bunch" move into an empty WBC in early October last year,
black vitriolic nasty tempered little so and so bees too.....

If they were so bad tempered, couldn't you have engineered regime change even in October?

 

[mbc]

Workers can contain virgins in their cells for several days by clustering on the cells until they decide to let them emerge or they're disturbed, sometimes by a beekeeper inspection when the newly disturbed workers don't pay attention to the queen cells for a moment and suddenly the hive can be full of emerging virgins, this happens quite a lot .

 

[Skyhook]

Have I got this all wrong? Do bees often swarm that late? Certainly never seen any QCs in mine after July... I seem to remember eating outside in a bout of unseasonal hot weather around the 20th...

I have been told not to worry about my bees swarming after the end of July- by the same very experienced beek who had once had a swarm in November! I think the point is it's possible, just increasingly unlikely.

 

[For want of a better word]

Thats the little Bees I got from spitting distance of South Crofty Tin Mine!!!
Don't get much more Cornish than that ...even if they are a Greek strain!!


Best Pasties do come from Bodmin.... that bakers off the industrial estate !

 

[oliver90owner]

Skyhook,

That very same beek may have known the age of your queen, and was being specific about your situation at that particular time rather than generalising. A young queen is much less likely to go late in the year.

Regards, RAB