Queen in the weeds

[deemann1]

I just went down the back garden 30 mins ago and noticed a lot of bees flying low to the ground around 15ft from hive entrance and I noticed this little white dot going across a dockleaf low and behold it was her royal majesty, thank God I clipped her.....
I caged her and put her in a bucket for now....
On inspecting the hive brood and half there was some queen cups with eggs standing up right , I didn't realise they would swarm so soon after all she just laid in them today.
Should I still AS the hive ? They don't seem to be following her in to bucket

 

[Millet]

You have missed a sealed Queen cell ..

 

[Beefriendly]

Shake the bees off the frames and you'll find sealed queen cells.

 

[masterBK]

If you want to use any of those queen cells suggest you don't shake but remove the workers off the combs with brush/feather.

 

[deemann1]

Thanks guys il have a look in the morning

 

[MerryBee]

Bees usually swarm around the time the first queen cell is sealed, so you may have missed a sealed queen cell. But sometimes bees will swarm days before a queen cell is sealed, especially during very good weather. I had one last year which swarmed at least 4 days before.

 

[Swarm]

Bees usually swarm around the time the first queen cell is sealed, so you may have missed a sealed queen cell. But sometimes bees will swarm days before a queen cell is sealed, especially during very good weather. I had one last year which swarmed at least 4 days before.

My mate's buckfast did precisely that a couple of weeks ago. Only a couple of charged cells, around day four or five and they were gone.

 

[Beefriendly]

I'll still bet he missed the sealed ones.

 

[Swarm]

I'll still bet he missed the sealed ones.

Can't help yourself can you?
No, he didn't miss a sealed one, I went through the lot.

 

[deemann1]

Well guys there was No sealed queen cells in hive just eggs in cups I did an AS on them after

 

[Beefriendly]

Can't help yourself can you?

No I can't help myself trying to give good advice.
It's very unusual for bees to swarm without a sealed queen cell being present.
They can be quite tricky to find.

No, he didn't miss a sealed one, I went through the lot.

And you are mister infallible?

Be more helpful if we knew age and source of queen to eliminated dodgy supplier. In my experience Buckfast from decent breeders rarely swarm before their 3rd year.
UNLESS they are kept in single National brood boxes....beekeeper error.
Where they on double or single?

 

[masterBK]

Bees that are really intent on swarming do occasionaly swarm when larvae are advanced but cells not sealed (often this follows several weeks where the beekeeper has destroyed previous sets of cells or when the hive is extremely congested). They will also go when there are no cells at all (beekeepers having recently culled them) but I suppose this would be regarded as absconding.