- Joined
- May 19, 2014
- Messages
- 92
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Oldham
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 3
Our only hive swarmed last Thursday.
We had been putting off this year's first inspection because they are supposed to be my wife's bees but we couldn't match her availablity to the nice weather, and I didn't want her to feel that I was trying to take over.
(We have now sorted this out - whoever is available will do inspections as and when necessary.)
We lost the swarm as it ended up in a neighbouring garden which is an 'unfriendly', but when I eventually got into the hive on Friday night I was very surprised to see so many bees still in there.
The hive was as full as I have ever seen it. My mentor suggested that the swarm was quite 'floaty' so some of the bees may have drifted back home?
There were several opened and emptied QC's, and a couple of sealed ones, so it has almost definitely swarmed.
We removed all but one nice large sealed QC and generally tidied up the hive, but whilst I was working my mentor who was assisting said she heard a queen piping from the brood box as well, although we didn't see her.
There was plenty of brood, both sealed and unsealed, and several sealed drone brood too. I didnt see any eggs, but then again I never have because of my poor eyesight.
There were plenty of stores taking up loads of space as well, which might be why the queen felt the need to swarm as she might have been restricted in her laying area.
We moved the nadired super back above a QE and left them to it for now.
When I got home I disected the sealed QC's we had removed, and these looked like they had been sealed for several days (the larvae looked to be between 12 and 14 days old).
My question is, can this be possible?
Can we have a hatched queen and others within a couple of days of hatching in the colony only a day after a swarm, and with a very large number of bees still in there?
I thought that the swarm would have left as soon as the first QC was sealed - weather has been perfect for them so that can't be a reason. I also thought that a swarm would have taken a fair proportion of the colony as well.
We are pretty certain that there haven't been any other swarms and that the swarm on Thursday wasn't a cast swarm.
What am I missing or misunderstanding?
Andy
We had been putting off this year's first inspection because they are supposed to be my wife's bees but we couldn't match her availablity to the nice weather, and I didn't want her to feel that I was trying to take over.
(We have now sorted this out - whoever is available will do inspections as and when necessary.)
We lost the swarm as it ended up in a neighbouring garden which is an 'unfriendly', but when I eventually got into the hive on Friday night I was very surprised to see so many bees still in there.
The hive was as full as I have ever seen it. My mentor suggested that the swarm was quite 'floaty' so some of the bees may have drifted back home?
There were several opened and emptied QC's, and a couple of sealed ones, so it has almost definitely swarmed.
We removed all but one nice large sealed QC and generally tidied up the hive, but whilst I was working my mentor who was assisting said she heard a queen piping from the brood box as well, although we didn't see her.
There was plenty of brood, both sealed and unsealed, and several sealed drone brood too. I didnt see any eggs, but then again I never have because of my poor eyesight.
There were plenty of stores taking up loads of space as well, which might be why the queen felt the need to swarm as she might have been restricted in her laying area.
We moved the nadired super back above a QE and left them to it for now.
When I got home I disected the sealed QC's we had removed, and these looked like they had been sealed for several days (the larvae looked to be between 12 and 14 days old).
My question is, can this be possible?
Can we have a hatched queen and others within a couple of days of hatching in the colony only a day after a swarm, and with a very large number of bees still in there?
I thought that the swarm would have left as soon as the first QC was sealed - weather has been perfect for them so that can't be a reason. I also thought that a swarm would have taken a fair proportion of the colony as well.
We are pretty certain that there haven't been any other swarms and that the swarm on Thursday wasn't a cast swarm.
What am I missing or misunderstanding?
Andy