How to prevent a cast swarm

[bushman1872]

Not so long ago I AS my hive unfortunately for some reason I lost my original queen but that is a different story. Both Hives have produced a reasonable number of queen cells on friday I went and made sure that there was only one cell in each hive that was left and destroyed the others, I did this in the hope that only one queen would emerge in each hive. The problem is that I had already cleared all bar one of the queen cells 7 days previously and yet more were built in their place. I don't want to keep opening up the hive and risk upsetting a newly emerged queen but equally I don't want her to find that more queen cells have been built and that she then decides to fly off with half the colony. What can I do?

On another note I had moved the hives around to give the old hive the impression that it had lost a large proportion of its flying bees and would hopefully tear down all bar one queen cell however this does not seem to have worked!

 

[thurrock bees]

i would open them up 7 days after the last inspection. id destroy all the NEW QC. After that the brood will be too old to raise a new queen. so leave alone for 14 days and then check them.The new queen will have hatched and if not already, be on her mating flight.

Hope that helps.

 

[bushman1872]

hi thurrock I thought about this and I really hope your right but the other thing that has me puzzled is that both hives are bringing in copious amounts of pollen still, They have both been queenless for at least 7 days and I though that bees bringing in pollen meant that a queen had been laying within the last few days?

 

[thurrock bees]

no a queen less hive will still bring home pollen.just make sure there is room for the queen to layonce she has hatched. ( no point having a laying queen and no cells to lay in.)

 

[susbees]

hi thurrock I thought about this and I really hope your right but the other thing that has me puzzled is that both hives are bringing in copious amounts of pollen still, They have both been queenless for at least 7 days and I though that bees bringing in pollen meant that a queen had been laying within the last few days?

I find this interesting. We had one hive being stuffed with pollen yesterday, had a laying queen on Friday. Three further up the field were lazily bringing in a tiny bit and none have laying queens at present (today may be the add a frame of eggs day...). One is building much comb, the other two not. Hmm. Like fortune telling guessing what they're up to in there...

 

[bushman1872]

indeed it is like fortune telling. Thurrock how can I make sure that there is room for her to lay, they seem intent on filling up newly drawn foundation with honey! The remaining frames have brood on already but presumably by the time the new queen is back in lay a lot of this will have empptied out? The remaining frames are just foundation.

 

[Poly Hive]

Can we have a think about this.

Queen less hives, as in not having a mated queen, but having virgins are notorious for stuffing the brood frames with pollen and honey.

The honey is easily dealt with by bruising with the hive tool and they will take the hint and shift it pretty quick.

Pollen is another matter though and if they really seem determined to NOT move it then it's time to say stuff it and bite the bullet.

I would take out a frame and add either foundation or a drawn comb if you have any handy.

Pollen clogged combs are sometime rescuable by letting them soak so the pollen swells and then shaking it out and washing (gently) with a hose.

Barring that it is a recycle job. Melt the wax and on you go.

PH

 

[bushman1872]

okay thanks for that PH I think the majority is sealed honey so I will try bruising it. What do they do with it do they just move it somewhere else or consume it?

 

[Poly Hive]

Both.

PH