Swarm or no swarm?

TonyPayne · Apr 21, 2017

I am in my second full year of beekeeping so I'm relatively new to beekeeping. Last night when I came home from work (about 18:00) I had a mass (maybe a thousand or so) of bees on the outside of the hive. This hive had already swarmed last week so I wasn't sure what was going on. Looking at various posts it looks like it could have been a cast swarm or bearding, but the conditions didn't seem quite right for either. I checked in the top of the hive and found the super was full to bursting with honey and bees so. So not knowing any better i added another super and opened the entrance. Over the period of the evening half of them went back in but the other half settled down for the night on the outside. This morning I knocked them down on to the landing board and they all proceeded to walk into the hive. normality seems to have been restored but what I want to know is what I should have done and what they were doing, can anybody hazard a guess?

For additional information, I managed to capture the swarm last week and confirmed the queen was in the new hive and the old one was queenless with a couple of queen cells. My intention was to leave the old hive alone while they got their new queen mated and settled down in her job. The temperature dropped to below 10 degrees last night and it rained, but the bees stayed out all night!

thenovice · Apr 21, 2017

TonyPayne · Apr 21, 2017

Okay, so a few of questions to follow on from the fact that it was probably a swarm. Does a queen come out with the cast? was she out with them when i knocked them onto the landing board and they all walked back into the hive? did she walk back in with them? Will they try again? Should I have captured them and put them in a seperate nucleus hive? Thanks.

beeno · Apr 21, 2017

Hi Tony, Fully suited put your ear to the side of the hive and listen out for piping. One will toot (just like a party tooter) and the other one will answer if you have two queens in there. However, the workers may keep them apart in which case you will have a cast swarm on your hands. If it's 'all quiet on the western front' one has been taken out. Good luck and well done for retrieving your prime swarm.

TonyPayne · Apr 21, 2017

Thanks Beeno. I just had a listen on Youtube and was amazed at the sound they made. I'll have a listen to mine over the next few days

In fact I just had a listen now and there is definitely one queen in there going hell for leather with her party tooter! I'm not sure if there is a second one replying, do they only make that noise if there is definitely more than one in there?

PS. great advice Beeno, another valuable lesson learnt today.