Swarming?

[Will Kevans]

Hi Guys, I am in my second season with hopefully a crop if my first honey from my bees.They seem to have wintered well and I was glad I managed to fend off the scourge of Asian hornets with my beer and grenadine traps. I opened the hive for inspection the frames appear healthy and there are copious bees. I have added a super to the top of the hive. I am concerned however that they may be about to swarm. Please see my video, is this indicative of bees about to swarm or normal beehaviour? Excuse my ignorance but I was thinking about attempting a hive split or is this too soon?video to follow when I can encode it. Many bees are gathered on the front face of the hive with hundreds buzzing about in a frenzy.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Are there queen cells in the hive?

 

[Will Kevans]

Are there queen cells in the hive?

Yes

 

[Erichalfbee]

Then get in now and split

 

[Will Kevans]

Did you see the video!?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes. That doesn’t look like swarming to me but it doesn’t matter if you’re back in the hive in the next half hour.
what sort of queen cells have you found? Sealed, unsealed, open?

 

[Will Kevans]

They look to be open

 

[Erichalfbee]

Do you mean emerged or not yet sealed and did you find the queen?
If you can find her remove her into a nuc then you can concentrate on what to do with the queen cells calmly

 

[Erichalfbee]

Have you read this?
There are queen cells in my hive what do I do

 

[Will Kevans]

Do I separate several frames from my existing hive and place them into a new hive which I then stick on top of the existing?It populates and then I separate it ? Do I need to include the new super I installed or will I now need a second super with Queen excluder for the split hive? Sorry to bombard you with questions . I still have no idea which frames I should remove.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The easiest is to nuc the queen. The frame she is on but no queen cells and another frame of brood no queen cells. Add a frame of food and two more empty frames. Drawn us best but foundation will do. Move more than three feet away.
Shake in two frames worth of bees from the original hive
Back at the original replaced the removed frames with foundation at the edge of the hive
Find a fat well positioned( safe) open queen cell and destroy ALL the others. Mark the frame.
Go back in a week and remove any more they make
Keep an eye on the stores in the nuc till foragers are established.
OR
Look up Pagden

 

[Finman]

I would do an artificial swarm.
It is best way to stop swarmimg fever and after 3 days the queen contimurs laying = produging new brood.

When first queen cells are capped, the colony is ready to do primary swarm.

That flying of bees in video is cleansing flight of the day.

 

[enrico]

Erichalfbee has given you good advice. You need to understand what a swarm is all about and then you will understand a pagden method of swarm control. A Pagden is as follows. You need a spare hive. You need to find the queen.
The old queen will go in the new hive on the old site. Similar to a swarm you now have the old queen and all the flying bees which will return to the old site. They will have fresh comb ( apart from the frame the queen was on) and will act like a swarm starting to make wax and build up the new hive.
The queen cells will go with the old hive on a new site. You now have a hive that will be depleted of the flying bees as though a swarm had left. You need to keep the queen cells down to one where you can see royal jelly and is not yet capped. Destroy the rest and mark the frame with the open cell. Destroy any new ones made in five days.
However if your bees have already swarmed and the old queen has gone( open queen cells where a new queen has emerged) then you are too late. Destroy any other queen cells and leave them to it!

 

[Will Kevans]

Thanks for all the advice guys. This is a fast learning curve for me. Since we spoke I cracked open the hive again to inspect all the frames. I've made a video of it which I will share. Meanwhile I bought another hive and will attempt a split.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Is your queen still at home?

 

[enrico]

Thanks for all the advice guys. This is a fast learning curve for me. Since we spoke I cracked open the hive again to inspect all the frames. I've made a video of it which I will share. Meanwhile I bought another hive and will attempt a split.

Being a bit picky here Will but the correct terminology helps us all understand your needs!
A split is where you simply split a good colony in half (or more ) and is generally used in a good strong hive to increase your stock. Anything to do with queen cells or stopping swarming is a method of swarm control and usually has a name associated with it

 

[Erichalfbee]

Being a bit picky here Will but the correct terminology helps us all understand your needs!
A split is where you simply split a good colony in half (or more

Local terminology
OP is in Canada

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A split is where you simply split a good colony in half

not really - many people refer to the A/S method of removing a queen to a nuc as a split.
I've heard many experienced beekeepers refer to any kind of artifical swarm as a split

 

[user 20297]

Splitting hairs.

 

[enrico]

not really - many people refer to the A/S method of removing a queen to a nuc as a split.
I've heard many experienced beekeepers refer to any kind of artifical swarm as a split

Ok, fair enough!