Swarmed bees

[stramorebees]

Hi all. I'm looking for some advice please. I have one national hive that swarmed on me yesterday. I checked the hive the day before and had several Queen cups with eggs, but no full queen cells. I had previously marked & clipped the queen, so they only managed to swarm onto a near by tree. I caught the swarm this morning & found the queen, but unfortunately she has died. My plan was to make up a nuke, but because I have no current Queen, I have just put the bees back on the original site withe the full brood box.

I am fairly new to beekeeping, so I'm not sure what to do next. Should I just leave them to it for a week or so & see if they rear a new Queen? & what stage do I make swarm prevention on the new Queen?

Thanks for your help

 

[RoofTops]

If the queen was clipped and you caught her you should have put her straight back in the hive and within 20 minutes the swarmed bees would have returned to the hive, as without a queen they will go nowhere. However, I am not sure exactly what your position is as a swarm without a queen would be very difficult to catch as they would leave any box you put them in very promptly. It is just possible a new queen was raised with a view to supercessation but when the new queen emerged she killed the old queen and then departed with the swarm. If you did catch the swarm they should have gone into a nuc as they probably have a queen.

Given where you are now I suggest remove all but one good open queen cell, even one with just an egg if that is all you can find. Handle the frames very carefully, but all the time as you go through the colony keep looking for a new queen. I would do this inspection in the evening so there is no chance any new queen is on a mating flight. If you find eggs remove all queen cells.

If there is no new queen then hopefully a new queen will emerge and mate and you will be back to normal in about a month or so. If there is a new queen but you can't find her then they could swarm again.

If you have the kit you could split the colony and have a queen cell in each half. This will improve your chances of getting mated new queen.

However, you may well have a sealed queen cell as well, as sealing over the cell is the point at which they normally swarm, although there are always exceptions. When you go through the colony looking for the queen cells look for a sealed cell you have missed - but do not shake the frames to remove bees - blow on them if they are gathered in a corner and you want to see what is there.

If you get a new queen raised your bees may not swarm again this year but weekly inspections should still continue as normal.

 

[Heather]

Maybe I misunderstood- did you not put the swarm back with the original colony. Without a queen they will stay put.
If you did- leave them for 3 days then look at those queen cells again. If some capped see which is developed the best (lots of dimpling ) - dump the rest and leave them for 2 weeks.

 

[stramorebees]

Sorry, I probably haven't worded my 1st thread correctly. I caught the swarm, found the queen & was in the process of doing an AS when I noticed that the Queen had died. I then put the original brood box on the original site & placed the dead Queen along with the brood & queen cells. The new box with new frames is a few feet away & some bees were put into this box before i knew the Queen was dead. I was thinking the bees from the new box would go back to the original site.

What caught me out was that when i checked the brood box on Thursday, I had about 6Queen cups with eggs, but no full cells. I had planned on doing the AS yesterday, but they had gone at that stage. I know that I have no new Queen at this stage & only 2 fully developed queen cells. (some queen cups also). I just don't know what stage to prevent the 2nd swarm. If the new Queen gets mated, should she lay some eggs before she would try & swarm? I know I obviously can't clip her until she is mated, but I don't know the time delay before doing the AS.
Thanks

 

[RoofTops]

If you were trying to do an artificial swarm you got it the round the wrong way. The frames with brood go on a site a few feet from the old site. On the old site go the frames of foundation in a second brood box. The flying bees will go to the old site which is why that is where the queen goes - but as she is dead this group of bees will die out.

Assuming you don't have a live queen all the bees need to go back on the original site with all the old frames. Park the frames of foundation for later use.

 

[stramorebees]

Thanks for your reply.
I have the complete brood box on the original site now, so hopefully they will develop a new Queen.