Swarm conundrum

[babnik42]

About 10 days ago I caught a swarm which I thought was big enough to put into a full size brood box. When I looked the next morning the bees were huddled on 3 frames and I'd obviously miscalculated. Rather than move them again to a nuc, I reduced the box down to five frames and put on a feeder. In the meantime I've been away for a week and only had chance to look at them today. I was looking for evidence of the Queen laying. What I found is they have spread out a bit onto 4 frames and have drawn out 3 of those frames. I saw no evidence of laying but found at least 7 supercedure cells (high up on the frame as opposed to lower down) with 4 capped. So what am I looking at and what should my next move be? Is it possible they swarmed within that first 12 hours but the Queen had already laid some eggs and thus gave the remaining bees a lifeline? Is it just a dud Queen and the bees are taking matters into their own hands? Was there never a queen (either I didn't get her or she somehow accidentally died) and they just build the Queen Cells anyway out of desperation? If so would they cap them?

 

[oliver90owner]

Not thought to check one of those cells? Solve your own conundrum?

 

[Midland Beek]

Is it just a dud Queen and the bees are taking matters into their own hands?

That wouldn't surprise me. Those are possibly 'desperation-type' queencells which will come to nothing. Maybe take one apart and you will find something dead inside. Possibly raised on a few unfertilized eggs the queen might have laid, or possibly raised on eggs laid by a worker.

However, give them their chance. Perhaps make an effort to find the queen and look for signs of something wrong with her, like a missing leg or three, or a squashed abdomen.

 

[Arfermo]

If the QCs are capped and there is grub insde and one of them then there is Q somewhere. If the cells are empty after opening one by one then they are desperation/hopeful type and nothing will come of them. When bees swarm they carry a large load of honey with them which they can use for building wax comb quickly in their new home. Supplementary honey can be provided from inserting a frame or two stores with some cappings scraped back to get them to use it quickly rather than storing it for later. A frame of BIAS with new eggs on placed in the middle of 5 frames in a nuc or to one side in a full BB with a dummy board on the outer side will induce quick comb building plus enable them to decide if the Q that flew with them (if she is there at all) is worth her keep. They do need time to make these decisions so be patient but attentive.

 

[babnik42]

So I opened up one of the closed queen cells and this is what I found. Note the larva in the cell which I estimate to be about 9-11 days old. What threw me was the other larva. Not sure where it came from. I'm not 100% sure it was in the same cell or I just happened to get an adjoining cell with a larva in. I had the cell in my hand and when I arrived back in the house I noticed the smaller larva in my hand along with the queen cell. The queen cell was not completely open yet, but it is possible the larva was in the cell. Is it possible that I have laying workers and they capped a queen cell with multiple eggs in? If so seems strange that they would be of different age. Anyone seen this before? Do I have a look in another cell? I have 6 capped cells left?