Swarmy Little Beggers

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PaleoPerson

Field Bee
Joined
Jul 18, 2009
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Location
Essex
Hive Type
14x12
History of colony that has been a real pain in the A**e!!

1. Wife did and inspection in late June and two days later, a large swarm issued. Caught swarm with marked queen, relocated to new site, buggers absconded. Inspected original colony expecting to find a queen cell that had been missed, but no, they were raising emergency cells.

2. last month, a small swarm issued, landed 6 feet away on fence. No queen cells in original colony.

3. Inspected three days ago no queen cells seen and put Apiguard on. Buggers swarmed today (very small), flew 6 feet to a nearby fence. Marked queen in swarm (can be seen in pic).

All other colonies fine, just these want to swarm all the time, but why do they do it without queen cells being in place first?
 
Swarmed or absconded?

Get rid of the queen early next season (or now) before any drones can spread those genes!

She would not have lasted this long in my port folio!

Regards, RAB
 
Swarmed or absconded?

Get rid of the queen early next season (or now) before any drones can spread those genes!

She would not have lasted this long in my port folio!

Regards, RAB

I wanted to get rid of them in the summer, but they are the wife's bees (yes we have his and her bees). Although I think she is coming around to the same thought now. The successive swarms have all been from the new queens. The one in the pic is 5 weeks old.
 
Swarmed or absconded?

Get rid of the queen early next season (or now) before any drones can spread those genes!

She would not have lasted this long in my port folio!

Regards, RAB

Swarmed or Absconded, that is something I have not considered, it is almost although they are absconding. Hmmm... what would be the cause of that I wonder?
 
Naughty bees :( Why would they do this? If you requeened would it solve the problem, maybe bring in a queen from somewhere else as they have already raised another swarmy queen from that colony. Would that solve it? I'm not suggesting.....just a beginner asking if that's what you would do :)

If I am wrong, please explain why, and then what you would do to rectify the problem, thanks :)

NB seen a few replies while I was writing this, some hinting to the answers to my questions
 
the concern now i would think, is if they take it into their heads to swarm / abscond again later in the year......

would you be better to rub out the new queen and unite with another colony, or even shook swarm them and let the bees fend for themselves?

might be better options than losing a colony over winter.....
 
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Naughty bees :( Why would they do this? If you requeened would it solve the problem, maybe bring in a queen from somewhere else as they have already raised another swarmy queen from that colony. Would that solve it? I'm not suggesting.....just a beginner asking if that's what you would do :)

If I am wrong, please explain why, and then what you would do to rectify the problem, thanks :)

NB seen a few replies while I was writing this, some hinting to the answers to my questions

Yep, re-queening will sort the problem, but as they are SHMBO's bees........

I think I will unite all three of the swarmy colonies (the centre one in the pic is the offending source, the other two are out of sight) for the winter as they are all related daughter(when/if she hatches)/mother/grand-mother and re-queen in spring. I may consider doing it this month, but as these are garden bees, I have to be absolute on temperament. The grand-mother is not yet three months old.

Really, I want to find out the cause of this, they only do it when in this particular hive.
 
the concern now i would think, is if they take it into their heads to swarm / abscond again later in the year......

would you be better to rub out the new queen and unite with another colony, or even shook swarm them and let the bees fend for themselves?

might be better options than losing a colony over winter.....

Hmm..... in my books, no great loss. However, they may serve better uniting with another colony for the winter. Three unites into one hive. That should be fun.

I like this option, now I have to sell it to SWMBO.:smash:
 
Sell them. to somebody nearby.

They might swarm and come back.....
 
Really, I want to find out the cause of this, they only do it when in this particular hive.

on a serious note, could it be what that hive is made of / has been treated with, compared to the others you have....

is it new / secondhand?

shaded / full sun, compared to the others?
 
Yep, re-queening will sort the problem, but as they are SHMBO's bees........

What does SHMBO mean? I've seen it a few times and can't work it out, I assume it's something like 'er indoors.
 
on a serious note, could it be what that hive is made of / has been treated with, compared to the others you have....

is it new / secondhand?

shaded / full sun, compared to the others?

All equipment is new. All main hives are cedar with the exception of the standard national in left of photo which is pine. All Cedar hives are treated the same with cuprinol clear when new, then no further treatments. The bees have been in this particular hive since October last year. No problems until this summer. As you can see from the photo, the two hives either side are in the same situation.
 
All equipment is new. All main hives are cedar with the exception of the standard national in left of photo which is pine. All Cedar hives are treated the same with cuprinol clear when new, then no further treatments. The bees have been in this particular hive since October last year. No problems until this summer. As you can see from the photo, the two hives either side are in the same situation.

probably the decor then......

suggest "feng shu"???

or re-queening might be easier, as discussed




kaz, it's "she who must be obeyed"
 
Dodgy genes I would have thought if everything else is ok. :(
 
Is there enough room in the hive for the queen to continue laying? The first year I got bees one of mine swarmed on September 26th - the new queen had been laying so prolifically she ran out of room. i had been feeding them to build up stores for winter.
i have two new queens in two of my hives and I was a bit surprised when I looked in one today. They were moved on from a nuc into a commercial hive not long ago and the hive is packed full of bees. i am going to shove a queen excluder under the brood body to prevent any queen flight and as soon as the varroa treatment is finished i will shove on a super as we get loads of ivy round here. The bees bring it back and whatever people think of it the bees have to have somewhere to put it. I will leave that super on over winter without a queen excluder so the bees and queen can access the stores when they need them.
My colonies seem to have as many bees now as in mid summer. Today the air in front of the hives is just full of busy bees and the wasps seem to realise they don't stand much chance so are keeping well clear.
 
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