poor mating or swarming again?

[meidel]

Was very surprised to find swarm bees making queen cells in their new hive - the queen was spotted on the 5th brood frame - all brood frames were nicely capped and some larvae but no eggs. Considering the dry warm weather we'd been having and a large number of drones in the area can it really be poor mating? Unlikely that they're thinking of swarming again surely?

 

[acabee]

Hi meidel
I have a similar situation to make sense of, though possibly different reasons. But you need to provide more information. How many QCs and where? Frames of bees etc.

acabee

 

[meidel]

Hi acabee - yes I just read your thread. There were about 5 queen cells last Saturday and in my panic I destroyed them all when I saw the queen and then when I looked again yesterday, they'd obviously made QCs out of the older larvae as there were 3 more. Thing is the brood were all flat capped in the middle with some smattering of drone near the top and bottom of the frames. Didn't see the queen again this time and definitely no eggs. So I may have to do the same thing as you. joy indeed!

 

[acabee]

Hi miedel
ah, so you saw the queen a week ago, but not at your last inspection and no eggs either. Well, if they have rebuilt QCs they clearly want to do something. Sounds like you might be on the boundary between deciding if it is supersedure and swarm intent. Difficult to say from afar - the QC position (on face of comb?) might be a clue here, but it's not infallible from what I've read. Is the hive packed full of bees?

acabee

 

[meidel]

in the centre mainly although 2 were at the bottom in the centre. Yesterday I shook the frames to check and as it was really sunny most of the bees were out. I don't think they've swarmed (yet?) as the apiary is in an allotment site and other allotmenteers would have reported any swarms, plus I'd been going down everyday several times to look around.

Tomorrow, I'll probably unite the colony with a nearby hive, ie brush all 5 frames of brood free of bees, move those into nearby colony, move box about 10 metres away from original spot so that flying bees have no choice but to enter the other nearby hive and then see if the queen can be spotted.

 

[meidel]

best laid plans and all that! well, I moved the brood frames into the nearby hive and took the box with remaining bees and stores a distance away. But the bees seemed to cling on to dear life to the box and some were even fanning away from the top!

In the end I got the clearer board out and with a Qex over the 2 supers, newspapers, an eke and the clearer board, I placed the brood box on top. Hopefully the bees will have cleared down and I'll only find queen and drone above the Qex this morning ...

 

[Polyanwood]

Be careful about shaking frames with queen cells on. If you shake them hard then sometimes the larva can be separated from its food source and becomes nonviable.

 

[meidel]

hi polyanwood - I didn't want the queen cells and that was why i shook the frames - to make sure all the bees were off and I could see properly and get rid of any small ones lurking.