SixFooter
Drone Bee
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2009
- Messages
- 1,919
- Reaction score
- 792
- Location
- Merseyside
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 12
I've a colony that is really getting me in bother as it's on an allotment site and is scaring the neighbours.
There was a swarm issued from it as I arrived on site a week ago. I opened the hive up and tore down all but one queen cell. I then knocked the swarm into a box. When I came back to collect the nuc, it was empty of bees and i assumed they had moved on, but I think they went back to the original hive. They swarmed again the next day and I put them in a box again, but again it was empty when I came back to collect.
So this has happened 4 days in a row- the swarm emerges, settles nearby then , I think, returns to the hive in the evening Whether or not I put it into a box. I don't think they are separate casts as the original hive still has plenty of bees. I'm almost certain it's the same bees swarming over and over again.
Can anyone offer any advice as to what's going on and the best way to handle it?
There was a swarm issued from it as I arrived on site a week ago. I opened the hive up and tore down all but one queen cell. I then knocked the swarm into a box. When I came back to collect the nuc, it was empty of bees and i assumed they had moved on, but I think they went back to the original hive. They swarmed again the next day and I put them in a box again, but again it was empty when I came back to collect.
So this has happened 4 days in a row- the swarm emerges, settles nearby then , I think, returns to the hive in the evening Whether or not I put it into a box. I don't think they are separate casts as the original hive still has plenty of bees. I'm almost certain it's the same bees swarming over and over again.
Can anyone offer any advice as to what's going on and the best way to handle it?