Swarming?

[Erichalfbee]

Sometimes (at this late stage), workers, who have been guarding queen cells to stop the virgins (who are ready to pop out) from coming out of the cells (they kind of imprison them in there in case they need them later), get distracted when the hive is opened and the virgins seize the opportunity to escape from within the cell. This may have happened when you opened the hive after it swarmed. The cell you chose looks like it has been chewed at around the tip (1:13 to 1:16).

Yes like this

View attachment IMG_3465.MOV

 

[Will Kevans]

It is quite tricky to be honest. There could certainly be a virgin in there somewhere. Hopefully the queen cell you have chosen is ok. It could have died (that might have happened if it got chilled for instance), but time will tell. No matter what, you have definitely not wasted your time with anything you have done as you will have learnt heaps.

I could see it getting chilled as it was on an edge frame and it was very cold here down to minus 4 a month ago.

 

[Will Kevans]

Yes

Yes like this

View attachment 31574

Yes like this

View attachment 31574

Yes like this

View attachment 31574

Yes like this

View attachment 31574

Is that a virgin queen emerging then?

 

[Boston Bees]

Yes





Is that a virgin queen emerging then?

Yes

 

[pargyle]

HI Will,

I think it's probably come to the point, now, where you have to leave them to get on with it ...the last thing you could do (to balance the bee population in each box) is put the nuc in the position of your original hive and the original hive where the nuc was ... some (perhaps not all) the flying bees will return and take up residence in the nuc and bolster the bee numbers there.

Other than that, you have done as much as you can at this stage - albeit fire fighting. Sit on your hands and wait and see what transpires, as I said earlier, the bees may well sort themselves out. You will know in a couple of weeks if you have one viable colony, two viable colonies or no viable colonies ! It's got to be one of those and there are things that you can do in all those situations but leave them be ... make a note to look at them in, say, 3 weeks by which time a virgin could well be mated and started laying - you will be looking for eggs and larvae. Don't panic if there isn't any - new queens can take longer to get going - give it another week and look again.

Beekeeping is a constant battle of questions, decisions and actions and it's a steep learning curve ... this year will stand you in good stead.

 

[drex]

I expect the bees will continue to baffle me at times, right up to when I give up this hobby.
If I have doubts, I stop fiddling and leave it to the bees . They do, nearly always sort something out.

 

[Arfermo]

I don't mark my queens. This is mainly out of cowardice. But it is also a deliberate attempt to make me better at spotting queens without artificial assistance. Touch wood, this seems to have worked.

A masochist at large?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes





Is that a virgin queen emerging then?

3

 

[Finman]

Yes like this

View attachment 31574

Emergency queen cells and queens are coming out. And at same time. Equal age larvae here.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes emergency cells. I did a split according to Wally Shaw and left all the emergency cells. His instructions say such splits don’t swarm
They did.

 

[Will Kevans]

HI Will,

I think it's probably come to the point, now, where you have to leave them to get on with it ...the last thing you could do (to balance the bee population in each box) is put the nuc in the position of your original hive and the original hive where the nuc was ... some (perhaps not all) the flying bees will return and take up residence in the nuc and bolster the bee numbers there.

Other than that, you have done as much as you can at this stage - albeit fire fighting. Sit on your hands and wait and see what transpires, as I said earlier, the bees may well sort themselves out. You will know in a couple of weeks if you have one viable colony, two viable colonies or no viable colonies ! It's got to be one of those and there are things that you can do in all those situations but leave them be ... make a note to look at them in, say, 3 weeks by which time a virgin could well be mated and started laying - you will be looking for eggs and larvae. Don't panic if there isn't any - new queens can take longer to get going - give it another week and look again.

Beekeeping is a constant battle of questions, decisions and actions and it's a steep learning curve ... this year will stand you in good stead.

Yep, I think ive done as much as I can at this stage. given them the best chance!

 

[Will Kevans]

Just one thing, is it advised to give some sustenance to the nuc, ie candy pack and syrup to the main hive? I thought it may help them seeing as its been quite traumatic for them recently. I've see some forager activity on the main hive with a few drones milling about and they seem calmer today. With the nuc I put a few more bees in from the main hive and the split seems to have been encouraging them to enter into the new nuc as its entrance is more or less in the same position as the old hive entrance. Is it worth taking the main hive entrance reducer off and should I remove the super? However there seems to be comb building going on in there.

 

[pargyle]

Just one thing, is it advised to give some sustenance to the nuc, ie candy pack and syrup to the main hive? I thought it may help them seeing as its been quite traumatic for them recently. I've see some forager activity on the main hive with a few drones milling about and they seem calmer today. With the nuc I put a few more bees in from the main hive and the split seems to have been encouraging them to enter into the new nuc as its entrance is more or less in the same position as the old hive entrance. Is it worth taking the main hive entrance reducer off and should I remove the super? However there seems to be comb building going on in there.

There should be enough forage about at present for them to manage without feeding ... feeding a nuc at this point in the season can encourage robbing if there are stronger colonies about. If the nuc and the original colony both have stores in the frames you gave them I would not feed.

I run all year round with a reduced entrance .. if you are seeing masses of bees all trying to get in at the same time just pull the entrance block out a bit to give them a gap at the end they can use.

Leaving the super in place is best for the time being - it's just more disturbance taking it off and they need a bit of peace and quiet.

 

[Will Kevans]

There should be enough forage about at present for them to manage without feeding ... feeding a nuc at this point in the season can encourage robbing if there are stronger colonies about. If the nuc and the original colony both have stores in the frames you gave them I would not feed.

I run all year round with a reduced entrance .. if you are seeing masses of bees all trying to get in at the same time just pull the entrance block out a bit to give them a gap at the end they can use.

Leaving the super in place is best for the time being - it's just more disturbance taking it off and they need a bit of peace and quiet.

Ill take the feed off tomorrow then. Do I need to reduce the nuc entrance too? The hornets are back so I thought theyd be in danger without

 

[pargyle]

Ill take the feed off tomorrow then. Do I need to reduce the nuc entrance too? The hornets are back so I thought theyd be in danger without

Oh dear ... Asian hornets are a bit new to us over this side of La Manche ... so I don't know the answer to that ... as I understand it the hornets hover outside the hive and take bees on the wing so I'm not sure whether a large or small entrance helps the bees. Richard Noel is our resident expert on hornets in France...hopefully he will be along to advise ?

 

[Antipodes]

Yes emergency cells. I did a split according to Wally Shaw and left all the emergency cells. His instructions say such splits don’t swarm
They did.

That's so funny. That happened to me too following his guide....more than once to be honest.

 

[Will Kevans]

Yes Richards been helpful this is not my first year with the hornets, Im on top of it with liquid traps. But if they are enboldened they wi get inside the hive especially a nuc theyll get in and rob everything and kill the bees too.It started happening with my main hive til i put the reducer in in the autumn.

 

[Will Kevans]

That's so funny. That happened to me too following his guide....more than once to be honest.

It must be catching!!

 

[Will Kevans]

View attachment VID_20220426_135542 (1).m4v
My split and some of my hornets trapped!

 

[Will Kevans]

Hi Guys, further to my last and a progress report. There seems to be limited activity in the new nuc. I think there may be no queen present. If this is the case can I recombine the existing nuc frames with the main colony, which seems a lot more active?On the plus side I think Ive really got on top of the hornet situation , I haven t seen nearly as many asian hornets beer and grenadine traps north south and east of the hive location.