I made an Pagden AS mistake ( or possibly 3 )

[Bevbee]

Did a pagden AS on 17/5
Did the extension bit ( moving hive with QCS ) yesterday ON DAY 8 !! ( did this as I had Thursday in my head instead of Tuesday - they both start with T)
Today hive with QCS swarmed ( mistake 1 = I missed some QC) They settles on a nice low branch of tree in TWO clusters .

This is what I did : collected both clusters( mistake number 2?) and put them in a nuc box with a frame of capped brood from the hive they had just left including nurse bees ( mistake number 3?) . All other frames mixture of drawn and plain foundation . Is this ok ? Is it possible there were two queens ?

Also - just an observation - my other two hives seemed very agitated too for the duration of the swarm but calmed down once the swarm was hived . Why ?

Thanks in advance

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

what do you mean by the 'extension bit'? with a pagden Q goes in empty hive in old location - all the brood with 1 QC at new location. What exactly did you do?

 

[Bevbee]

Whoops - sorry for confusing . I meant the Heddon variation . But I moved the queen less colony on day 8 instead of day 7 .

It was this queen less colony ( although obviously now with a new queen or two ) that swarmed

 

[Nige.Coll]

did you go back and check/remove any emergency queen cells ?

 

[Bevbee]

I didn't �� .
So once I have separated the queen from the brood with the QCS I have to keep checking that they haven't made emergency QCS in addition to the swarm cells ? I didn't know that - explains the swarm.

Is it possible that two queens swarmed at once ? - they made two separate clumps next to each other . If so have I made a major error hiving both swarms together ( both clumps were very small )

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I didn't �� .
So once I have separated the queen from the brood with the QCS I have to keep checking that they haven't made emergency QCS in addition to the swarm cells ? I didn't know that - explains the swarm.

Is it possible that two queens swarmed at once ? - they made two separate clumps next to each other . If so have I made a major error hiving both swarms together ( both clumps were very small )

probably a load of virgins swarming together then splitting up

 

[enrico]

Regarding the two swarms. It depends on how soon after the swarm you tried to collect them. If you had left them for an hour they might have combined into one. What happens is that sometimes a swarm settles in two places. They get confused as to where the queen is, but they get there in the end and all end up in one place. That is why it is sometimes good to leave a swarm until it settles down, you run a slight risk of it absconding but an initial swarm may stay hanging from a tree branch for a couple of weeks so there is usually no hurry!
E

 

[beeno]

Hi Bevbee,
Yes, I have seen that about nearby colonies getting in on the act too in a friend's apiary. In my case they were doing Nasonov fanning though, so perhaps the colony swarming happened to do it when the others were doing orientation flights leading to bee chaos.
As Enrico on the swarms. They most probably would have combined into one in due course with the virgins, so the outcome would have been the same for hiving. However, bear in mind that they may swarm again as there are more than one virgin.

 

[Bevbee]

Thank you everyone who has replied - all makes sense to me .

1/I collected the swarm within an hour - so in future if this happens I will give them more time .

2/There is a chance that I have two virgins in the same hive ( although both clumps were small - so more chance that I don't ?)

3/If I do have two virgins in the same hive they may swarm again.

Plan now

I am not going to try and find out if I have two virgins by inspection as the chances of me finding two are remote and if I found one - I would still miss the other plus possibility that she / they be out mating now / soon and my disrupting the hive would be the wrong thing to do. Think that I will leave then for a couple of weeks and then if I have a viable layer I will mark her and make her queen of the colony ( reuniting with the hive with the old blue queen )

Does this sound like a plan ?

Thought asking Advice up front better than when too late .

 

[Bevbee]

Lesson learned !

Found ANOTHER swarm from that hive ( my other colony is settled ) opened the brood box ( the one without the original queen but with all the brood ) and destroyed all the QCs that I found - one hatched a queen in my hand which was pretty awesome .

I swapped some stores for foundation and poured the swarm in.

I hope that this will mean this tiny colony settles down now - hope there is only the one queen. Is it safe to add a swarm like this ?