Not my swarm... phew!

[BeeFarmer]

Got a call on Friday with the news that one of my hives had swarmed. Apparently a mass of bees had been seen flying over the barn and heading towards the village. Thankfully it was nearly lunch break so after a quick chat with the manager I was in my car heading off to see if they could be retrieved. However, when I arrived they were no where to be seen... the only good news is that when I examined my hives everything was okay and there were no signs of a chunk of bees missing from either of them! Phew, somebody elses were doing a fly-past... it's just a shame I couldn't catch them.

When I got home I put some of my spare equipment in the garden, woke up this morning and there must have been 20 - 30 bees all having a look around it so I'm not sure who they belong to but hopefully they'll come find a new home.

It's just a shame that due to bad beginner beekeeping I have a hive which is a brood box full of stores and little/no room to lay! Another fine mess to sort out, that'll bring me back down to earth!

We soldier on!

 

[enrico]

Just add a bb underneath!

 

[BeeFarmer]

I noticed a couple of swarm cells in there because of the issue so I've spilt the hive and placed half into a nuc box and then given the hive 6 frames of foundation to work on although I might swop them for some drawn comb that another hives been drawing out since doing the artifical swarm.

The hive in question is half of the hive which has been doing the drawing. I was unsure if I added a brood body underneath or a super on top if it would supress the swarming instinct, hence the split. Whilst inspecting my hives I accidently knocked a supercedure cells and released a virgin queen so I left the other cells and placed her in a cage with a few bees and a newspaper cap. I then placed the cage into the nuc, praying that the other queen definately wasn't introduced during the split.

Hopefully all will come good, it probably won't but time will tell...