Not possible.....

[Heather]

Mystery... I gave a lovely colony to a new bee keeper a few weeks ago.. He rang today... swarm in tree, can I help?
On visiting, got swarm down, and prepared his 2nd hive (my loan... again) so checked his original colony, muttering 'odd, as wont be big yet, must be swarmy whotsits'... Not one queen cell capped, none ripped down..but 3 at about 4 day charged.. No queen seen in hive...1 day eggs. Have you known a colony swarm with no capped Q cells???

5 frames wall to wall brood too... may grab a queen cell in 10 days. BUT seem too few bees in the hive to support all the brood.. so numbers do look low.

 

[For want of a better word]

That is bees for you!!

Yeghes da

 

[user 6228]

Mystery... I gave a lovely colony to a new bee keeper a few weeks ago.. He rang today... swarm in tree, can I help?
On visiting, got swarm down, and prepared his 2nd hive (my loan... again) so checked his original colony, muttering 'odd, as wont be big yet, must be swarmy whotsits'... Not one queen cell capped, none ripped down..but 3 at about 4 day charged.. No queen seen in hive...1 day eggs. Have you known a colony swarm with no capped Q cells???
Y
5 frames wall to wall brood too... may grab a queen cell in 10 days. BUT seem too few bees in the hive to support all the brood.. so numbers do look low.

yes bees swarm on uncapped.

 

[richardbees]

BUT seem too few bees in the hive to support all the brood.. so numbers do look low.

...unless I missread presumably that's because they all went off in the swarm.

Hi Heather, the little buggers continue to rewrite the rule book!

I suggest you destroy all putative Q cells and unite(newspaper method) the original BB on top of a Qtx over the hived swarm BB....and add two supers of foundation.

 

[Heather]

Yes, I presumed swarmed .. but I have never encountered a colony leaving so prematurely. Day 5 queen cells..Dyslexic bees....but a lovely queen as frames picture perfect in brood pattern.
Will remove cells when capped and so bring on in incubator for myself... then rejoin them. Waste not, want not

 

[oliver90owner]

Perhaps the bees sense something we don't? Impending storms after the next couple of days going to a) prevent them leaving, b) create problems for any swarm left outside, or c) this is the only sensible window for the next couple of weeks? Perhaps bees are more proactive (than we give them credit for) and better weather forecasters than the human variety (with all those super computers).

Another alternative might be that your beek knocked down some queen cells at a previous inspection?

RAB

 

[Excession]

Another alternative might be that your beek knocked down some queen cells at a previous inspection?

RAB

That's where my money would be.

 

[Heather]

No, I know knocked cells, and these bees were on pristine, newly drawn, comb.
I live and learn... never too old it seems. They can go before capping even near.
But happy to take your money...

 

[drex]

Recently happened to me. I think they probably left on day 5 of queen cell.
Members told me yes it does happen.

 

[Roola]

same has happened to me this year. I lost 2 swarms this year. One went after AS with just a few queen cups with eggs in, the other had nice open cells, none capped.

 

[Dishmop]

Perhaps the bees sense something we don't? Impending storms after the next couple of days going to a) prevent them leaving, b) create problems for any swarm left outside, or c) this is the only sensible window for the next couple of weeks? Perhaps bees are more proactive (than we give them credit for) and better weather forecasters than the human variety (with all those super computers).

Another alternative might be that your beek knocked down some queen cells at a previous inspection?

RAB

I think the bees are proving that the books are wrong....

 

[beesknee]

Mystery... I gave a lovely colony to a new bee keeper a few weeks ago.. He rang today... swarm in tree, can I help?
On visiting, got swarm down, and prepared his 2nd hive (my loan... again) so checked his original colony, muttering 'odd, as wont be big yet, must be swarmy whotsits'... Not one queen cell capped, none ripped down..but 3 at about 4 day charged.. No queen seen in hive...1 day eggs. Have you known a colony swarm with no capped Q cells???

5 frames wall to wall brood too... may grab a queen cell in 10 days. BUT seem too few bees in the hive to support all the brood.. so numbers do look low.

been a funny year, checked one of my out apiaries on Monday which has a small 3 frame nuc (british standard) and it had swarmed it had 1 draw frame with about 1/2 full honey and pollen, 1 drawn frame with nothing much in and 1 frame with brood and hatched queen cells (4), well some you win and some you loose.