Odd situation - A small swarm and plenty of queen cells - Advice sought

[Robeerto]

Hi all, I'm a first time beekeeper. I bought a full hive (Buckfast) in March.

Unfortunately I can't find any clear guidance on my situation on the internet - I have been looking for 3 hours now. I would be grateful if someone could help me...

I've been away for a few weeks and came back (now mid May) to find a couple of clusters of my bees about 4 metres away from the hive. They're now in a container. The combined cluster is perhaps 300 bees strong.

Meanwhile, over the course of an hour the front of my bee hive became covered in bees as if they were preparing to swarm. Then, all of a sudden many of them began waving their rear ends in the air (which I understand to mean that they are accepting this place as their home, is this true?) Ten minutes later they went back inside the hive.

I checked inside my hive and it looks full of bees to me, so many that I couldn't find the queen - or perhaps she's not in there any more? There are also 7 capped queen cells, 1 hatched queen cell and many drone brood (about 1/3 of the total brood).

Why did so few bees leave in the swarm?

What should I do with the remaining queen cells?

I hope you can help!

Thanks

Robeerto

 

[VEG]

they have swarmed if there are sealed cells in there. You need to get back into the hive first chance you get and either make some splits or reduce the amount of queen cells. The one hatched cell could be the first caste swarm to leave, there will be others to leave if you dont sort them.

 

[oliver90owner]

As veg, really. Likely they swarmed a week ago and now throwing casts?

 

[richardbees]

ditto Craig

Well done spotting the uncapped Q cell.....so it's likely there's a virgin Q in the hive.

If there are clusters of bees hanging around it's probable the original Q failed (maybe clipped?)

If you have a spare hive, I suggest you put it alongside and split the frames. If not, I suggest you open up and destroy ALL the Q cells tomorrow.

richard

 

[BeeJayBee]

Meanwhile, over the course of an hour the front of my bee hive became covered in bees as if they were preparing to swarm. Then, all of a sudden many of them began waving their rear ends in the air (which I understand to mean that they are accepting this place as their home, is this true?) Ten minutes later they went back inside the hive.

Could they have been welcoming home a new queen on a mating flight?

 

[VEG]

She would have killed off the other queens before going out on a mating flight though surely.

 

[Robeerto]

Thanks all

Many thanks for the quick and informed responses, I feel like I've learnt a lot in a short space of time.

I have destroyed all the queen cells bar one - as I'm not 100% sure that a virgin queen is in the hive - couldn't see one although there were so many bees it was difficult to focus. Am I right in thinking that if there is a virgin queen then she will kill the one in the cell? And if there isn't a vq then the one in the cell should hatch, get fertilised and return as the new queen?

I am keeping the swarm in a covered bucket with a small entrance and have put some sugar solution in a holey bag at the bottom. I hope to house them properly tomorrow/tues when the new hive arrives and if they are still there!

Cheers
Robeerto