swarmed yesterday what to do next?

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RichieDug

New Bee
Joined
Aug 14, 2010
Messages
39
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0
Location
Cambridge
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
2 colonies
I'm a new beekeeper this is my first season.... I had discovered a Q cell sealed on Friday last which I removed to gain some time as I was going in hospital but my colony swarmed yesterday while I was still in hospital. I'm home now and there is no sign of the swamed bees but bees coming and going at the hive as normal...I intend to do an inspection tomorrow. Shall I remove any other Q cells leaving just one as I don't want casts leaving me with nothing as this is my only colony. My hive is a national brood and a half plus one super. They had plenty of room & stores.
Any advice appreciated
 
hi
if your sure they swarmed and the queen is gone
do not remove the other q cell she will be the new queen
 
Thousands of bees flying about for 15 mins then all clusted on a hedge and then disappeared....all whilst I was in hospital so I was not around so if I do an inspection tomorrow and find Q cell/cells is it best to leave only one ? if so sealed or unsealed?
 
Leave all the queen cells as they are until you can see the new queen or at least her activity.
 
If the new queen gets mated, she will probably sort them herself.
 
Sounds like the queen is being superseded and they haven't swarmed if you've only found and removed one queen cell.

Where abouts was the cell you removed on the frame, around the edge or more in the middle of the frame?
 
The cell was about half an inch from the bottom of the brood frame.....they must have swarmed as "Thousands of bees flying about for 15 mins then all clusted on a hedge and then disappeared" they would not have returned to the hive.
 
One QC does sound like supercedure, but then that would be more likely to be in middle of the frame. Anyway sounds like they have certainly swarmed.

If you find more QC's I would suggest you thin them out to leave the best two.

I also suggest you read up about doing an artificial swarm for the future, as squashing cells is not swarm prevention.

Again a good example that the bees do not read the books
 
DREX I will do an inspection tomorrow and leave two cells as you susgest. I only squashed the cell as I was going into hospital and did not have the time to do anything other than squash it. If two cell hatch will these virgin queens cause casts?
 
personally i would leave one queen cell. choose the largest.
if u have a mini nuc place another queen cell in that with a cup full of bees in it, this could act as an insurance. (look up mini nucs on this forum search engin for more info
 
Richiedug, sorry to learn that you have lost a swarm. I trust you are OK after you hospital visit.

I don't understand some of the posts above. !!!
A strategy of hope is not ideal, and you are correct, 2 queencells could lead to a cast.

After you have lost a swarm:-

Leave one open queencell which has plenty of royal jelly in it, remove the sealed ones (you cannot be sure that the sealed cell has something in it). Mark the frame with a drawing pin above the queencell so you know where it is. Treat it VERY carefully do no knock, touch or shake it. In a week (5 - 7 days) check through the hive and remove all the other queencells - you may need to shake the combs to remove the bees that are covering emergency queencells. Do NOT shake the frame the queencell is on as you will dislodge the queen from her food source. You now have 1 well-fed queencell. The queen will emerge 8 days after the queencell has been sealed - 5 days from egg to sealed larva.
Leave the colony for 3 weeks as it is not adviseable to mess around with a colony with a virgin in it. Never open a hive with a virgin inside between 10 and 5 pm as she might be flying and you could confuse her. You will likely see bees hanging around the entrance a few days after emergence when the queen is ready for mating and the weather is good. They will be guiding her back using their nasnov glands - concerned about her absence. You may see droned hanging around the hive too - just as lads will hang around a tart in a nightclub hoping for a good time. If you're lucky or patient you may see her return with a 'mating sign' attached after a flight with the boys. She will start to lay a couple of days after the last mating flight.

+++++

As an option and insurance policy, if you have a nuc to hand, you could put one queencell on it's frame in there with 2 frames of shaken bees, 1 frame of stores and make up the space with comb/foundation and have a nuc which has a good chance of producing a queen itself and developing into a full sized colony by the winter.

++++++

To further complicate things. If you leave 2 open queencells, you can remove one of them in 5 - 7 days leaving just the one. (in case you knock one by mistake). This MIGHT allow you time to get a nuc or a mini-nuc as melormynydd suggests and remove the queencell to that with a cup-full of bees.

Adam
 
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The wait for the queen to mate is an agonising one. However MOST get mated so don't worry. Once you see pollen coming into the hive in good quantities that is the time to expect the queen to be laying and you can inspect the colony. The time from emerging to laying is rarely less than 2 weeks in my experience.
 
Adam

Thanks for the advice, if I create a NUC as insurance do I block the entrance for 24 hours with some grass?
 
Adam

Would I also need to feed some syrup to the NUC?

Regards Richard
 
RichieDug,
No need to block the entrance, just shake in a couple of frames of bees as well as the ones you transfer on the frames of brood. Any flying bees will return to the parent hive leaving nurse bees to look after the brood and queen cell.

You only need to feed (a little and often) if they have foundation to draw or the weather turns pants.
 
RichieDug,
No need to block the entrance, just shake in a couple of frames of bees as well as the ones you transfer on the frames of brood. Any flying bees will return to the parent hive leaving nurse bees to look after the brood and queen cell.

You only need to feed (a little and often) if they have foundation to draw or the weather turns pants.

Thanks to you all, I will let you know the out come

Regards Richard
 
Just reading through this thread makes me feel a lot happier there are experienced beekeepers out there. Gonna need you soon guys and gals!
 
The yonger bees are a bit more grippy - the ones that don't shake off with the first gentle shake are best for using in a nuc as they are less likely to fly back. I do prefer to close the entrance with grass for 24 hours. If there's enough young bees then you don't need to.
 
Closing with grass is a good insurance policy, the books dinna read them selves to the bees... oddly. LOL

PH
 

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