No eggs

[always weeding]

I undertook a hive inspection today with a view to performing an artificial swarm.
i could see no eggs or queen. there were several sealed queen cells.
It has thrown me a little as i am not sure that the colony has already swarmed although the hive looked pretty full to me or something has happened to the queen since my last inspection.
It just seems to be set back after set back after my one and only colony had came through winter strong.
Any advice would be aprreciated please

 

[Pete D]

Sorry to say that you hive has swarmed.
You should reduce the queen cells to just 1 (or 2). If there are any open queen cells with larvae in you could choose these instead.
http://www.wbka.com/images/education/a012queencells.pdf

This is a good read

good luck

 

[VEG]

As above it has swarmed.

 

[always weeding]

Cheers Pete, it was a suspicion but there seemed to be so mnay bees in the colony

 

[Moggs]

You say that you had the intention of performing an AS. Maybe a little late? One assumes then that you may have noticed queen cells in development earlier - if so, that was your clue for action!

You should still act as suggested or risk losing some more bees. When you say that the hive looks full, we could get a better idea in terms of frames covered in bees....

Queens will stop laying in preparation to swarm.

Was your queen clipped?

 

[always weeding]

Queen wasnt clipped, no cells at last inspection but it has been a few weeks since i have been able to inspect due to weather and time,work etc

all frames are covered and the colony appears to be at its strongest since i purchased it last year

 

[Moggs]

Sealed QC's in number, especially around edges of frames point to swarming/ swarmed bees.

You may still need to act quickly. Photo's of these QC's?

More frequent inspections will give you a better chance of timely intervention.

 

[oliver90owner]

You should reduce the queen cells to just 1 (or 2).

My advice is to first consider whether you want one or two colonies.

Two is always considererd better than one, should an unforseen hiccup occur - like losing a queen, but the down-side might be less honey crop (all assuming we get one this year!).

Two is better than one, should the temperament of the new queens be strikingly different.

Re-uniting later is always an option and two queens should lay more brood than one...

One queen may not even get mated...

RAB

 

[Skyhook]

You should reduce the queen cells to just 1 (or 2).

My advice is to first consider whether you want one or two colonies.


One queen may not even get mated...

RAB

Good thinking as always from Rab. A good insurance policy to either continue with the AS, or take off a nuc (probably my choice given where you're starting from) with 1 or 2 QC's in each. Doubles your chances of getting a good mated queen, and if both halves are succesful gives you the option of moving to 2 hives, which is a good place to be.

 

[Finman]

.
Now your job is to prevent second swarm to escape.
So, make a artifial swarm.

Your hive has weaked so much that don't split it any more.
Join AS parts when founations has been done.

NOTE that it takes almost 3 weeks that new queen starts to lay again

.

 

[drstitson]

OP -

couple of points -

1. remember we are in early peak build up season so two weeks without inspection will have allowed a load of brood to hatch (certainly much more than any losses due to death).
2. swarms will tend to take foragers with them - these are bees you don't normally see all of at once in the hive when you inspect as they are out....foraging.

and a friendly tip - have another read of your books to understand the timings and what one should be looking for and doing.

No queen, no eggs and sealed QCs = swarmed.

 

[always weeding]

Many thanks for the advice everyone. lessons being learnt every day by me and its great to be able to hop onto here and get good quality advice from seasoned beekeepers.