Ready to Swarm?

[SER]

Hi

A month ago I aquired a 6 frame nuc which was put into a national brood box, since then they have drawn out almost all but 2 sides (the two outside faces) of the new foundation.

The queen seems to be laying well although she seems to still have plenty of room.

I went to inspect them this weekend with the intention of adding a super and found a single sealed queen cell (I'm fairly sure its just a single one) hanging from the bottom of a frame.

Am I needing to do an AS already? I know all bees are different but I was under the impression that you tended to get multiple swarm cells?

Cheers Si,

 

[Poly Hive]

Hmm...... One cell on the bottom of the frame?

Sorry to say but your bees are probably thinking of superceeding.

If you want two colonies why not put the ailing queen into a nuc and let them superceed her, and let the main colony also get on with it so that in the event of disaster striking you have a back up.

PH

 

[SER]

I was wondering about superceeding, I'm guessing this is more likely as she was a queen from last year?

Si,

 

[grizzly]

The queen seems to be laying well although she seems to still have plenty of room.

Dont let that fool you, as Poly says it sounds like Supercedure.

One of my hives did this recently to me, i kept seeing the queen, and she was laying all the empty cells, good strong layer, i started to find supercedure cells, i thought the bees were mad as she was not showing any signs of failing, 3 weeks later when i actually picked her up she could hardly walk.

My point being - we can only usually go on what we see, the bees however can detect a problem weeks before we pick it up.

 

[jimbeekeeper]

I was wondering about superceeding, I'm guessing this is more likely as she was a queen from last year?

Si,

Are we now ruleing out queens after only one year?

I thought 3 was the norm!

 

[Poly Hive]

Not sure how far you go back Jim but it's always been my experience that some will go the distance, my longest was 4, a BF I know says he had a five year old, and so on the basis of the law of averages some will fail early.

Whether there is the issue another person claims, I hae ma doots.

PH

 

[grizzly]

Are we now ruleing out queens after only one year?

I thought 3 was the norm!

Ive had two purchased queens from last year fail this spring. not very good at all.

 

[SER]

Following from last weekend....

After finding and ripping open what I was fairly convinced was a single QC last weekend I did my weekly inspection this afternoon only to find 6 sealed QCs all at the bottom of the frames.

If I am correct they are sealed after 8 days which means I missed them last weekend which I find hard to believe but it just shows that I still have an awful lot to learn!

They still haven't drawn out the two far outside faces of the foundation and haven't really made a start on the foundation in supers.

With these 6 QCs I guess I have to treat them as swarm cells rather than supercedure that was suggested and do an AS straight away?

Si,

 

[Poly Hive]

Yes.

AS as soon as.

PH

 

[SER]

Looks like I'll be doing my AS in the morning..

Just reading up on artificial swarms to refresh my mind, what I have read so far (Ted Hooper mainly) talk about placing the supers from the original hive onto the new brood box with the frame with the old queen on. In that instance you gain stores and the bees in the super(s)

In my case where they are only just begining to drawing out the super should I do anything different. I can obivously feed them and will pick up any flying bees by moving the hives but is the lack of bees in from the super a problem?

Should I shake some additional bees in?

Hope that makes sense,

Cheers Si,

 

[sputnam]

Shouldn't be any problem. Remember that, as the swarm is on the original hive's site, it will also pick up all the flying bees.

Stephen.

 

[Finman]

.
Odd case. One queen cell and swarming does not fit in figure. Seem quite surely superceding.


Do this: Put the laying queen upstairs into super.
Put the excluder and let the queen cell emerge.

The hive is too small to do false swarm.