QUICK! what's happening?!

[bjosephd]

So swarm moved into my hive on Sunday midday,

They've seemed rather happy since then… quiet day today as weather not great and windy.

But now, at nearly 8pm there is a noisy pile of them on the floor below the hive entrance.

I've just spotted there is a marked queen on the floor!

What do I do??

 

[Dishmop]

So swarm moved into my hive on Sunday midday,

They've seemed rather happy since then… quiet day today as weather not great and windy.

But now, at nearly 8pm there is a noisy pile of them on the floor below the hive entrance.

I've just spotted there is a marked queen on the floor!

What do I do??

put her in the hive...

 

[bjosephd]

How do I make sure she stays?
Why is she wandering out?!

 

[Swarm]

Put an excluder under the brood until she starts laying.

 

[bjosephd]

She has now died =O(

Need to get a frame egg/young brood from local beek.

What the hell happened?

 

[Dishmop]

She has bow died =O(

Need to get a frame egg/young brood from local beek.

What the hell happened?

Is there any chance that she may have been killed and there is another queen there?

 

[bjosephd]

But they only swarmed in on sunday =O/

 

[Thymallus]

Shhhit happens, there aren't complete explanations for everything. Worth checking, assuming some drawn comb in your "bait hive" , that she didn't lay some eggs before her demise. Something quite similar happened to a a swarm I collected a few years back, they drew qcells from the few eggs she had laid.

Also check for any virgins, Lindauer's observations on swarms showed that an old queen is sometimes accompanied by two or three virgins.

 

[bjosephd]

It all seems rather strange. Any theories?

Could she have got hurt in the various moves and manipulations on sunday and they've booted her out as she's injured? But if so, how did she last two days - seems bees don't get 'slightly' injured - she was still wriggling a little when we tried to pick her up and put her in a queen cage, but fell on her back in the jumble on the floor before we picked her up - bees don't buzz on their backs normally. Was she jumped or was she pushed? Was she balled?

We've checked and we can see no eggs at all although she is a marked (green) queen and there were 2 drawn brood frames in there already when they moved in, so in theory she could have got laying straight away.

Another local beek is going to dissect her tomorrow and see if she's full of eggs or overies have atrophied etc (who'da thunk I had such a prolific local beek - yet we are all stumped)

I have the feeling there is definitely not another queen in there since the hive is now roaring! But then why the hell would there be another queen in there anyway, virgin or otherwise?! Only a small pile of bees were out there with her, the rest were doing their stuff in the hive.

Local beek is going to grab a frame of brood/eggs for me tomorrow once it's warm enough - and actually has some where queen cells are being drawn... theory is that if they need a queen then they have a head start, if not, they will tear them down... but that roaring really sounds like a grumpy ass hive =O(

baffled

 

[bjosephd]

So frame of various brood now added, with some queen cells on too. The hive is almost certainly queenless as the loss of the marked swarm queen made the hive grumpy and confused and roaring through the night.

If a virgin queen does come out of the wood work they should probably tear down the queen cells on the new added brood frame. In the meantime hopefully the frame of brood will keep them busy and calmer now with something to do.

Time to feed them, leave them, and cross fingers and toes.

 

[Arfermo]

So frame of various brood now added, with some queen cells on too. The hive is almost certainly queenless as the loss of the marked swarm queen made the hive grumpy and confused and roaring through the night.

If a virgin queen does come out of the wood work they should probably tear down the queen cells on the new added brood frame. In the meantime hopefully the frame of brood will keep them busy and calmer now with something to do.

Time to feed them, leave them, and cross fingers and toes.

I hope you cut out all capped QCs and left two open charged ones of similar age only? If not you are in uncertain territory as to where things will end with multiple QCs, some viable, some not.

 

[bjosephd]

The two local beeks here didn't seem to think that was necessary, I think particularly as are a small colony who have only just swarmed. Worker bees or first hatched queen in theory will tear down the others when there is a new queen in the house?

Although I would imagine it would make most sense to leave one large capped queen cell on the frame only. Why specifically TWO cups and charged rather than capped?

All thoughts appreciated, would be nice to avoid another disaster, but don't want to be opening up the hive every day!

The bees seem a lot calmer and business as 'usual' now though which is nice… I guess they have a purpose in life again.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Small swarm and marked queen. Mighty peculiar!