I hate to use profanity, but WTF?

[Nose Ma]

Today I approached the hive (OMF, open) to see a load, and I mean a load, as in several thousand bees, hanging off the bottom of it. I thought it was a bit weird, but may be because of the hot weather. Sure enough, I opened it up and things looked a bit busy in there. So, I added a super.

So far, so good.

I then thought (and that was the problem) "I know, all those bees can smell the hive, but can't find where it is" I have no idea why I thought that. So I reached under, took a big couple of handfuls and dropped them on the alighting board, so they can find home. Obviously bees fly everywhere. Those on the board disentangle, and a queen shakes herself off, and walks into the hive. I was a bit startled, but bees are bees, so I rolled with it. The bees I'd dumped started to follow her. It's a narrow entrance, so there was a queue. I was watching this, and thought "hang on" then "that queen was marked white" then "I have not marked the queen in this hive" (it's odd how I saw the queen, but not the marking to start with, but still).

So, she is in there. So is my queen, I think.

There is no fighting. I have a clear back panel to the brood box, all is calm. Bees are crawling up the legs of the hive like some bad B movie, the only fighting is with the odd stray wasp who has come to have a look.

I sat and watched for a while. After half an hour there are bees all over the hive, still no fighting.

I decided to leave them be, as, well, bees have been looking after themselves for time out of mind, I have been a beekeeper for minutes in comparison.

Any thoughts on what happened, or what I should do?

 

[RoseCottage]

some forum mentor will ride up and fire some wisdom at you soon...

In the meantime I will put in the wide mexican hat and white outfit and be the cannon fodder gringo...

I would split the queens into separate hives...go and recover the one you put in asap. This way they can all just get sorted.

All the best,
Sam

 

[Nose Ma]

Thanks!

I'll go and try. At least with one marked one I can tell them apart. I'm still in shock!

 

[oliver90owner]

You may be lucky and find two live queens, but I somehow doubt it.

A swarm and a colony may fit into a hive but they may need a little more space than one extra super.

Question is which queen would win? I would guess the slimmed down version, but never experienced such as this, so may be wrong.

Regards, RAB

 

[RoseCottage]

problem is that effectively it sounds to me like you have homed a swarm in your colony...so if you split them then you need to perhaps give the new queen a brood frame, some foundation and lots of bees...

As i said some responsible adult will shortly be along with a cunning plan,

Sam

 

[drstitson]

interesting situation.

assuming you still have two live queens you have a large colony and lost the advantage of a swarm.

still if you spilt and put old queen and the half the brood/bees on original site and new queen nearby with rest of brood/bees the flying bees should return to old home leaving a "swarm" but with brood.

end result shouldn't be two bad (provided queens ok).

otherwise i'd take advantage of boosted colony to raise some more queens to split off into nucs.

 

[drstitson]

BTW on this forum WTF is less of a profanity than WPF!!!!

 

[Poly Hive]

Lost me there doc....

Can we keep it simple please for the simples like me... been offshore on the rigs long enough to know the "f" word but medical thingies leave me stumped.

PH

 

[Nose Ma]

Thanks all.

I returned to the hive, to find a few (in the tens) flying bees, and a marked, very dead, queen out the front of the hive. Another super is on to make sure they have space (thanks RAB) and for today I'll leave them to it.

All was calm as I walked up, no pinging off the veil or other nastyness. What a surreal evening.

Thanks all for the responses.

PS - can I have a clue on WPF? Put another way WTF is WPF? OMG, LOL, ROFL, etc etc

 

[mbc]

weald place farm possibly

 

[Bcrazy]

on rare occassions two queens will live together for a period of time but as i said it is not a common occurance.
Mo

 

[richardbees]

drstitson,

I've only just learnt that LOL doesn't mean 'lots of love'...

...what does WPF mean?

 

[Poly Hive]

Sorry Mo but wrong again there are strains which sup very often. Esp AMM just to rub the salt in. but the truth hurts eh?

PH

 

[Bcrazy]

it has been known that two queens will live together in a hive for a period of time. This is normally mother and daughter, as what might have happend in your case Nose Ma.

Just read your report about the dead queen.

Mo

 

[Bcrazy]

Poly hive what the hell are u on about *****!!!!!!!!!

 

[mbc]

Plain as day PH is on about supercedure where two queens often co-exist, especially with native type bees

 

[xgeordie]

Another strange story -
On Monday morning I went to check the Apiary and discovered swarming in progress. Some bees had settled on a queenless hive. Fighting broke out - a few dozen bees were killed. I then saw an unmarked queen enter the hive followed by the rest of the bees that had clustered outside.

On the ground I noticed a ball of bees. I managed to "unravel" it to find another unmarked queen at the centre. She was alive, so caged her and put her in another of my queenless hives (yes, I'm sure).

The swarm that entered the first queenless hive then left again after a few hours and settled up a tree. I managed to collect them again and dropped them into a new hive. I put a QE on the bottom to prevent the queen escaping. Next morning - all gone - queen must have been thin enough to fit through (should have used one of those Th****s ones!)

 

[Bcrazy]

mbc
You have just confirmed what i have said that two queens can live together i have not mentioned where there are two different colonies in the same set up as you need a double brood box for that type of existence.