Swarm problem

[chive]

Hello -have a small issue with my bees because I'm not sure why they have just swarmed.

Went to see bees at about 12.30pm today. Couple of bees in and out of hive but nothing untoward or out of character. 5 mins later - swarming! 15 mins later - settled in tree I had just said needed lopping (very convenient).

History of last few checks:
18th June - QC with large grub in (almost sealed?). Old green Queen retired to the freezer.

30th June - Didn't check because thought I might be disturbing the new Q.

3rd July - swarm! Checked hive and have found:
- all brood frames full of nectar/capped honey, except for capped worker brood (remaining from old green Q??);
- bits of capped drone, half of which was at top of frames;
- 4-5 sealed QCs towards edges of frame (one of which had had a Q emerge) BUT it was not the frame which I had seen the QC on the 18th June)
- no egg, unsealed brood.
- Room in 2 supers.

Questions are: why have they swarmed?
Is it that new Q has nowhere to lay, in which case why have bees filled all of brood with nectar/honey?
Is she not viable?
Why have the bees produced more QCs when there was a new young Q out and about (I assume)?
Has the Q in the QC seen on the 18th June not worked out so colony have raised several new QCs in mean time and today's is the first to emerge?
Do I need to get rid of all but one or two QCs in hive ASAP?

Thanks

 

[melormynydd]

i would go back to the hive and destroy all but one of the remaining queen cells, or you risk having cast swarms with the next emerging virgins. and do this asap

when you find a queencell in a hive good chance there are more than one, so you need to inspect the hive afew days later (around 4 -5 days)after removing the queen to leave only one or two nice looking queencells (i leave one) or you risk the first virgin queen leaving with a swarm of her own.

 

[the naked beekeeper]

When a colony is trying to swarm, they are wanting to procreate.

Removing the queen will have bought you some time until the new queen(s) hatched; upon which they have a choice whether to kill off all the others, or, procreate.

And since that is what they wanted to do originally and you didn't reduce their numbers in anyway, the bees threw out a cast swarm (virgin) of a prime swarm size I'm guessing.

The best thing to do, if you're not going to split them in anyway, is to reduce them to one un-opened QC. That way, they have no chance even if they want to swarm of doing so.
Keep the old queen banked in a nuc if you can whilst waiting for the new queen to hatch and mate in case it goes tits up.

Giving space is not a definite prevention to swarming.
If they want to do it, then it matters not a jot, though it can disuade them if you keep ahead of them.

You need to destroy all the QCs in the hive and re-unite the swarm back to it (if you caught it) when you know they are queenless.

Do this by adding in a test frame.
If they build QCs, then knock them out and re-unite.

Bit of a faff, but got to be done.

If you can't get a frame of eggs, then try and borrow one.
Otherwise you have to be very sure you're not introducing the swarm and queen into a queenright hive.