Hive is a mess

[pargyle]

A couple of points. That's a load of excess comb. Are the bee spaces right? Something doesn't quite look right. Wish I was closer to come and help you out. Your heart is in the right place but you need some help. Queen cells? Are you sure? If so then at what stage were they? Need a bit more info before I can keep advice to the minimum. I really really suggest you accept an offer of help from someone 'who knows!'
Just had another look at the photo. Looks like sealed queen cell there. In which case you may have already lost your queen. In which case I hope you have another queen cell in there! Please get some help!
E

That's almost identical to the lumps of comb that I had to take off the bottom of my frames in the LDH which had about 7cm of bee space below my 14 x 12 frames. Could it be that the OP has national frames in a 14 x 12 box or a similarly large brood box. You are right ... looks wrong to me.

That queen cell definitely looks ripe and it's possible that the hive has already swarmed ?

In fact, there's two or three smaller queen cells visible in the photo as well ... would suggest that the hive needs to be carefully treated from now on in case there is a virgin in there waiting for a fine day. Were there any eggs seen during this inspection ?

 

[Jay1911]

and so the story continues......

I went back to the hive today to check the bottom brood box for queen cells, eggs etc...

I waited for a break in the rain, got suited up and went in, boy oh boy were they annoyed ! could not see any eggs but did see some more queen cells but to my untrained eye I couldn't tell if they were new/old.

Put the hive back together and had a chat with hedgehog66, she mentioned it would be worth having a look around just in case they had already swarmed, that's not possible I said the hive is packed full of bees.......

Of course I was completely wrong and after a quick look around I found this:



Another chat to hedgehog66 then a quick run home to fetch the spare hive and back to the swarm.

I managed to carefully get most get most of the swarm into the new hive.

This is the new hive in place close to where the swarm was in an attempt to get the rest of the bees to go into it:



All of this happened about an 1.5 hours ago so I will pop back over in a few mins to see if I managed to get the queen in there.

J.

 

[wessexmario]

take a board or large piece of cardboard to make a ramp to the entrance.

Bees like to go up towards a hole and dark cavity, having a ramp makes it easier, you just dump the swarm on the ramp, they do the rest.

 

[Jay1911]

Cheers Wessexmario, I'll do that when I head back over, hopefully that will encourage the stragglers to get into the new pad

J.

 

[midnight sun]

Cheers Wessexmario, I'll do that when I head back over, hopefully that will encourage the stragglers to get into the new pad

J.

You need to know that the Queen is in the box. If she isn't the other bees will stay put to look after her. (bad weather tonight) If she is in the box the other bees will 'fan' and draw the other bees into the hive to join the Queen. You probably already know this but just a reminder as I know what it's like in the beginning, when you are trying to remember what you learned on the course and you can't due to panic! lol If she not in, then don't put yourself at risk by trying to work in the dark in this weather, bees are pretty tough and should be ok till the morning. PM'd you anyway