I wish the buggers could read.

[PaleoPerson]

Did an inspection nearly two weeks ago on a colony and saw it was preparing to swarm. About 5 or six small queen cells with larvae and royal jelly in.

So, no panic, this is what I did:

1/ found queen.
2/ ensuring queen was still in hive, knocked all queen cells down.
3/ two days later, setup new hive about 5 metres away.
4/ four days later, did another inspection expecting to find reasonable queen cells. However, found two very nice capped queen cells and 5 uncapped (must have missed two).
5/ Panic
6/ Find queen. Queen found looking skinny
7/ look for eggs - no eggs
8/ perform artificial swarm utilising new hive.

At this point, I was not convinced that she was not going to swarm anyway, it seemed she was ready to go.

9/ Checked next day - okay
10/ Checked next day - queen and bees gone.

Then the fun starts.

I located swarm 10 metres a way in an apple tree, a really simple one to collect. So, I prepared hive, to 'walk' bees in and off to collect bees - bugger, they have just flown off, over a garden fence and seemed to be collecting in the ivy on the otherside. So down the street I go to front of the house to hear female voice shout "oooh look whats going on in the garden". I knock on door and ask "do you have some bees in the garden?" and both husband and wife seemed relived that it would not be a problem, although the wife did say she was allergic to bees.

This collection took a long while (4 hours - mainly tea related), and also due to the swarm then moving to the bottom of the fence. I saw the queen, caught and caged her and showed her to the now more enthusiastic couple. Popped her into the collecting box and positioned it close to the swarm now on the gravel board. They all marched in. Then I called back at dusk to collect them and they are now hived.

The Interesting thing about this episode is the 'allergic' wife, took some 200 plus photos and at the end had changed camera to get some macro shots and was lying on the ground some 18 inches away from the entrance to get 'some good close-ups'.

The allergy? when ever she had got stung by a wasp or a bee, the stung part of her body swelled up.

The moral for me?

Really check the frames more thoroughly, I do not think that they can cap a queen cell in six days, so my fault. And even doing an A/S does not guarantee they will not still swarm.

 

[thurrock bees]

Good write up PP

 

[jezd]

Interesting, I am catching a few hives pre swarm with capped QC's and pretty much doing the same but not had issues yet with queen swarming regardless - did you do AS with a frame of brood (open or capped?) with the old queen?

 

[Dishmop]

The allergy? when ever she had got stung by a wasp or a bee, the stung part of her body swelled up.

that must mean that only some parts of my body are allergic....

 

[mandabow]

Really check the frames more thoroughly, I do not think that they can cap a queen cell in six days, so my fault. And even doing an A/S does not guarantee they will not still swarm.

sure i've seen queen cells capped in 4 days..

i may be totally wrong but was under the impression bees can decide to turn any female be into a queen up to cell capping so up to 6 days, which then leaves only 3 days for royal jelly feeding then they have to be capped anyways or it mucks up their metamorphasis completely..

bees aren't generally willing to do it if theres an larvae 1-3 days old they will use it, sometimes 4 if they somehow think the 1-3s arn't "right to be a queen"

however if hopelessly queenless and given a 6 day old they will use it, times i've seen capped in 4 have been where queen died or swarmed and all queen cells were cut down erroniously.. in a pnaic they grab anythign they can that isn't in sealed brood. pump milk in to try push it out of the cell, fill with royal jelly and cap off..

i guess the idea is better to ahve a sh1te queen with poor fertilisation/laying prospects than no queen at all, we can superseed her in a few weeks if we need to at least we'll have eggs.. sadly they don't know we will try and help them out.

in this situation i expect you're right and you missed two, unless queen wasn't laying as ready to swarm, then was allowed to stay a bit to lay a few more viable ones.

 

[PaleoPerson]

On the second inspection, most of the 'new' queen cells were around the bottom of the frames and near the sides. These were exactly as I expected as the queen was in full lay at the time of the first inspection.

The two sealed cells were in the centre of the frame about one third down from the top in an area where the cells had been reduced in height to form a kind of bowl around them. One each side on the same frame.

The one I squished was a very nice Q/C, but the one on the other side was absolutely huge, so took a gamble on the biggy and we will see what happens. I would have liked to have kept both and used one in a nuc, but the location on the frame meant I could not cut one out without damaging the other.

Checked the swarm colony today and seem to be doing fine and gave them some feed. Q/E under brood box. A fair number of Drones in the original colony and none in the swarm.

A/S was done with a frame of capped and open brood, no eggs. They had made about a dozen queen cups but these were empty when they swarmed. They completely buggered up the frame with holes as well.