Swarm occupying active hive?

[megadyptes]

I've got two hives in the back garden. Last weekend the larger had 7 frames of BIAS and 3 supers filling nicely. The smaller had 3 frames, and one filling super - the queen seems to have been quote slow to get going this year. Both of them have been packing in the pollen and nectar so forage doesn't seem to be an issue. Neither had obvious queens cells, but given this is only my second full season, I may well have missed some if they were in their early stages.

It's been a bit cool today and spotting with rain, so I decided against inspecting. Walking into the garden this afternoon, I was greeted by a mass of swirling bees in the air above the hives. After about 10mins, they all settled on the front of the smaller hive, and slowly moved in over the course of the next hour or so.

I'm assuming the larger hive has swarmed, has decided the smaller hive looks nice, and has set about evicting the residents. Is this likely? Or is it more likely the smaller hive has decided to go look for somewhere else, and then decided against it. I planned to inspect tomorrow, but given what I've seen today, I'm not sure whether that's a good idea. Any pointers?

 

[JWF]

Was it a full swarm or could it have been bees following a virgin queen out on a mating flight? If your queen has been on a go slow it's possible that she's being superseded.

 

[megadyptes]

Was it a full swarm or could it have been bees following a virgin queen out on a mating flight?

Being fairly new at this, I've no idea - How do you tell the difference?

 

[Swarm]

Being fairly new at this, I've no idea - How do you tell the difference?

The amount of bees. What size was the swarm on the hive? Thousands? Either way, you need to find out what has happened.

 

[pargyle]

The amount of bees. What size was the swarm on the hive? Thousands? Either way, you need to find out what has happened.

Bang on... it doesn't matter WHAT happened - what you need to know is what is GOING to happen. Inspection .. look for queen cells - carefully ... and be prepared to A/S ...

It's very unlikely that a swarm will try and occupy a hive that is already well colonised - there would be mass fighting at the entrance as even a small colony that has a queen in residence will fight potential invaders until the last.

If it's a weak colony (very weak or queenless) and there is honey in the hive then you can see robbing when a stronger colony sees an opportunity but that isn't what you have described.

It's a possibility that what you saw was the tail end of a virgin queen's entourage on her mating flight but until you look in the hive you won't know. I would not have waited ...

 

[megadyptes]

So, both hives still have the marked Queens who are laying, and there's no signs of fighting at the entrance. Having shaken the bee off each frame in both hives and looked over them, there's no sign of queen cells or play cups. In terms of the size of what landed on the hive, it was enough to cover the front and one side of the brood box. So, still none the wiser to what was going on.

 

[pargyle]

So, both hives still have the marked Queens who are laying, and there's no signs of fighting at the entrance. Having shaken the bee off each frame in both hives and looked over them, there's no sign of queen cells or play cups. In terms of the size of what landed on the hive, it was enough to cover the front and one side of the brood box. So, still none the wiser to what was going on.

What you probably witnessed then was the fliers returning en-masse to the hive - they can sense when there is going to be rain even when we don't see the signs (I suspect they sense air pressure changes or minute temperature or other changes) and they will return to the hive rather than risk getting caught out in the rain. It can look a bit like lot of activity at times although your original description sounded like more than it possibly was.

The other possibility is that it was bees that have just become foragers orienting themselves to the location .. were they flying round in a vertical spiral ? May have come out for a trial and discovered that the weather conditions were not quite to their liking and decided against it ...

No queen cells, queens in residence and laying ... Happy bees and happy beekeeper - nothing to worry about !

 

[Jonny901]

I'm pretty sure that something similar happened to mine last year. I did an AS as the hive were raising swarm cells. Left 1 QC in the original and during the inspection of the original a week later there was a hole ripped in the side of the QC and a marked (white) queen was present and a lot more bees. She wasn't the one who was there before as she was (and still is) in the hive I did the AS to.

As it turns out, she's the best queen I've had yet!