Swarm?

[dutney]

I'm a novice in my 2nd year of beekeeping and don't understand quite what has happened, or what I should have done.

This morning I received a call to say the hive I keep at a shared out-apiary had swarmed. When I got there the "swarm" was a cluster of about 500-1000 bees on the outside of the hive around the ventilation cone, just under the roof overhang - it's a WBC hive with National boxes inside.

I swept them into a nuc, and checked the hive. There was no sign of any Q cells, but I didn't see the queen either.

I had been feeding this hive since I removed the supers last Tuesday. At that time there wasn't much in the way of brood or stores in the brood and a half. There was nothing in the supers either (I had put them back on wet after extracting honey at the end of July).

I brought the nuc home and gave 2:1 syrup.

Should I wait a week before doing anything else? Does anyone know what might have happened?

John

 

[For want of a better word]

You didn't drop your remote phone in the box did you?



I would drop a frame of eggs from another colony to see if it has a queen or not???

 

[drstitson]

probably robbers trying to get at the feed/supers.

is there BIAS (inc eggs) in the hive?

 

[enrico]

The question is.... Is there a queen in the nuc? That will probably give you more clues than anything about what is going on!
E

 

[Swarm]

probably robbers trying to get at the feed/supers.

is there BIAS (inc eggs) in the hive?

Sounds very probable.