aseeryl
New Bee
Hi, I think I've made a bit of a mess here.
Basically, I lost 2 hives completely during late spring. The bee inspector came recently on his routine visit and reckoned that Nosema c, rather than apis was was primarily responsible. The remaining hive had survived, just, and was starting to brood, slowly building up.
Anyway, I took out the dead brood boxes from the closed off hives and covered them waiting to destroy them or try to sterilise with acetic acid/bleach. The bees discovered these over the weekend and yesterday were going at it removing capped honey from these. It was to late to stop them.
Late Sunday, after the tennis, we noticed the loud buzzing and there was a cloud of bees circling in the garden. I thought they were heading back home, but no they settled on a nearby bush in swarm formation.
The marked queen was happily trotting about in the hive and had not left. I collected the mass of the swarm group in a box and sealed it. There is no chance of a second queen. No queen cells, brooding patches are still small. The bees in the box settled all over the walls and did not cluster. There can't have been more than a thousand or so. The few remaining small clumps I collected in a jar and dumped above the crown board. They soon went back inside as did those I emptied onto the entrance landing (WBC).
However, now the problems. Inverted the poly box over the crown board shook them out and checked them later. these had not moved and were in a clump. Same this morning. I know that in swarm mode the navigation and homing programmes are wiped and am concerned that they will just die setting back progress, maybe fatally for all. So what to do?
Do I just dump the whole lot back in or leave them to their own devices? Or what?
Second thing. I took out an empty super from this hive, so it should not be affected, leaving it near the dead ones. This included a super frame with a dozen or so remaining capped brood cells (they had been breeding in this and most of the brood had hatched). I checked later and found clumping around these cells by by a further group of bees, obviously maintain the cells. What to do? I was wondering Whether it's safe to recombine and put the super back in, above a queen divider with the with the bigger clump? I haven't looked inside the hive today but there was no fighting yesterday. Will the swarmy group have lost their sense of home see it as strange? They can't have a queen with them and the whole business is less than 24 hours duration.
Any help gratefully received. This is my only surviving hive. There are not enough to survive independently. I have no spare queen cells and no way of getting one at short notice.
Basically, I lost 2 hives completely during late spring. The bee inspector came recently on his routine visit and reckoned that Nosema c, rather than apis was was primarily responsible. The remaining hive had survived, just, and was starting to brood, slowly building up.
Anyway, I took out the dead brood boxes from the closed off hives and covered them waiting to destroy them or try to sterilise with acetic acid/bleach. The bees discovered these over the weekend and yesterday were going at it removing capped honey from these. It was to late to stop them.
Late Sunday, after the tennis, we noticed the loud buzzing and there was a cloud of bees circling in the garden. I thought they were heading back home, but no they settled on a nearby bush in swarm formation.
The marked queen was happily trotting about in the hive and had not left. I collected the mass of the swarm group in a box and sealed it. There is no chance of a second queen. No queen cells, brooding patches are still small. The bees in the box settled all over the walls and did not cluster. There can't have been more than a thousand or so. The few remaining small clumps I collected in a jar and dumped above the crown board. They soon went back inside as did those I emptied onto the entrance landing (WBC).
However, now the problems. Inverted the poly box over the crown board shook them out and checked them later. these had not moved and were in a clump. Same this morning. I know that in swarm mode the navigation and homing programmes are wiped and am concerned that they will just die setting back progress, maybe fatally for all. So what to do?
Do I just dump the whole lot back in or leave them to their own devices? Or what?
Second thing. I took out an empty super from this hive, so it should not be affected, leaving it near the dead ones. This included a super frame with a dozen or so remaining capped brood cells (they had been breeding in this and most of the brood had hatched). I checked later and found clumping around these cells by by a further group of bees, obviously maintain the cells. What to do? I was wondering Whether it's safe to recombine and put the super back in, above a queen divider with the with the bigger clump? I haven't looked inside the hive today but there was no fighting yesterday. Will the swarmy group have lost their sense of home see it as strange? They can't have a queen with them and the whole business is less than 24 hours duration.
Any help gratefully received. This is my only surviving hive. There are not enough to survive independently. I have no spare queen cells and no way of getting one at short notice.
