Very early swarming has caught me out!

[goodbobby]

After 8 years beekeeping I thought I had a passable grasp of the subject, but it’s a bit like golf….when you think you are coping; it turns round and kicks you in the rear end!

I began 2014 with 4 over-wintered colonies in 14 x 12’s all descended from my original Buckfast nuc purchased in 2006. Historically, I have never needed to buy in a queen and “Artificially Swarm” every May/June for swarm control

I normally start weekly inspections in early April so that I am up to speed in the following six weeks or so to carry out swarm control. This April through serious family illness I had to miss out a two week period and could only inspect yesterday. On doing so I was amazed to find that all four hives had swarmed! They all contain open and closed queen cells and are crammed with stores and brood. One hive has so much stores and brood that it is currently impossible to manipulate without the frames breaking apart under the weight!

My past beekeeping has run fairly smoothly so I am really unsure what to do now and I am certainly in new territory. I have supered each hive to give more room but have not reduced the numbers of queen cells. At this late stage is there any merit in doing so and why? It is still early in the season so helping the colonies get back to full strength is the priority but I am concerned that further cast swarms could result from the current circumstances?

Any advice would be very much appreciated…………………………………..

 

[thurrock bees]

I would cull all but two queen cells and carry on a normal. Leave for two weeks for the queen to hatch, mate and start laying.
TB

 

[thurrock bees]

By cutting the queen cells to two prevent cast swarms

 

[dickbowyer]

I would leave only one good open queen cell in each hive or you are very likely to loose cast swarms as soon as the first virgin queen emerges. As insurance, you might also want to make up a nuc or two also with only one open healthy queen cells.

 

[oliver90owner]

This time of the year? I would be increasing my insurance to improve the chances of any and all queens getting mated. Extra nucs made up with queen cells. On the one hand they may not be needed but on the other hand.....

The question is: Can you rely on UK weather, for good mating, this early in the year? Answer: No.

I would also be checking those two queen cells regularly to see if the ripen, reducing to one if all looks good. Only one queen emerging means zero risk of swarming. You are not a one hive owner, so have enough back-up - providing the weather is friendly towards your bees' mating requirements.

 

[Heather]

This time of the year? I would be increasing my insurance to improve the chances of any and all queens getting mated. Extra nucs made up with queen cells. On the one hand they may not be needed but on the other hand.....

The question is: Can you rely on UK weather, for good mating, this early in the year? Answer: No.

I would also be checking those two queen cells regularly to see if the ripen, reducing to one if all looks good. Only one queen emerging means zero risk of swarming. You are not a one hive owner, so have enough back-up - providing the weather is friendly towards your bees' mating requirements.

still early for enough drones out there.

 

[TOBY-3652]

I would leave only one good open queen cell in each hive or you are very likely to loose cast swarms as soon as the first virgin queen emerges. As insurance, you might also want to make up a nuc or two also with only one open healthy queen cells.

 

[Chris B]

You must remove surplus queen cells to prevent cast swarms. That means reducing to 1 per hive. But timing is also very important. They can make new queen cells with eggs or young larvae. So the easiest approach is to remove all sealed queen cells immediately, then a week later reduce to a single sealed cell.

An extra nuc or two for insurance is also a good idea if you have the kit.

 

[goodbobby]

open or closed qcs?

Thanks guys for all of your very helpful responses.....I haven't counted but there are probably an average of half a dozen qcs in each hive. Should I prioritise open cells (as with an artifical swarm)to leave unculled and does the position on the frame / size of cell have any bearing in these particular circumstances ?

 

[itma]

You don't know when sealed cells might deliver emerging princesses.

With 'fat' open cells, you can reckon they would be capped in a day or two, and eight days later they should be emerging.
This gives you a timetable both for rechecking for new QCs before your chosen one(s) are due for emergence, and for mating within a month after emergence day.

As with an AS, you need to restrict the number of princesses to prevent casts.
But you need at least one successful QC per colony.
I said "per colony" because some of the advice above was to split your hives into a couple of nucs, each with their own QC(s) to increase the chances of getting enough well-mated Qs. Dunno how many nuc boxes you might have, but worth doing with some.
My extra tweak would be to suggest taking some QC-nucs to near a friend's apiary (that friend having a reputation for keeping "good" and healthy bees) - in order to have those Qs mate with different (but 'good') drones - getting you some new genes into your bees' gene pool.


ADDED /// Cell selection. Position doesn't indicate QC quality. If leaving two in one colony (increasing the chance of one good survivor), you should choose two that are close together, or at worst on adjacent comb faces, so that if two princesses are delivered, they cannot help but get to each other and compete for the crown. That competition (and no more than two rivals) should ensure no casts being lost.

 

[masterBK]

Leaving two cells also risks queens fighting. Sometimes the winner comes out of the fight with bits missing with the loser biting off parts of her opponents front leg or antennae. I have also seen wings somewhat chewed.

 

[domino]

This is an interesting topic, I've current got two sealed and two unsealed cells in my hive.

I normally knock all but two down, but, as I'm currently flush with too many hives at the moment I decided to leave them all up and see what happens.

I'm assuming the first queen out will knock the other three off.

 

[itma]

Leaving two cells also risks queens fighting. Sometimes the winner comes out of the fight with bits missing with the loser biting off parts of her opponents front leg or antennae. I have also seen wings somewhat chewed.

However, if the cells are close to each other, the most likely outcome is that the first one out would deal with the prospective rival before she even emerged from the cell.

Nevertheless, bees, invariably, etc.

 

[itma]

This is an interesting topic, I've current got two sealed and two unsealed cells in my hive.

I normally knock all but two down, but, as I'm currently flush with too many hives at the moment I decided to leave them all up and see what happens.

I'm assuming the first queen out will knock the other three off.

Not necessarily.
Since they are different ages, I would expect at least one of the princesses from the now-sealed cells to lead out a cast swarm, if the hive is even moderately strong with bees and stores. Those in the now-unsealed cells, being less developed, might well not be responsive to the pipe/quark challenges that lead to virgins being terminated while still in their cells - and thus they would survive to either lead out another cast later, or, last girl standing, inherit however few bees remain to rebuild the colony.

Unless you are intending to split them into plural mating nucs (of whatever size), you are inviting the serious possibility of casts by leaving four cells of different development ages.

 

[domino]

Not necessarily.
Since they are different ages, I would expect at least one of the princesses from the now-sealed cells to lead out a cast swarm, if the hive is even moderately strong with bees and stores. Those in the now-unsealed cells, being less developed, might well not be responsive to the pipe/quark challenges that lead to virgins being terminated while still in their cells - and thus they would survive to either lead out another cast later, or, last girl standing, inherit however few bees remain to rebuild the colony.

Unless you are intending to split them into plural mating nucs (of whatever size), you are inviting the serious possibility of casts by leaving four cells of different development ages.

So it your suggestion to knock all of them down and leave one strong queen cell up?

 

[Moggs]

One known good QC, unsealed so that you know it has potential, with a nice fat larva bathing in a rich and copious pool of royal jelly. This will curtail any fighting or casts and will give you some predictability as to time to next inspection. You will probably see no more new QC's, assuming that there are no fertile eggs - but check in a few days after reduction. If you have a single viable cell of known age (ish) this is your best chance of maintaining the colony. Ensure that you have just the one QC in a few days, then leave for three weeks to emerge and mate. Then, continue inspections when you have a laying queen. I assume that you still have plenty of young bees to keep house.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[itma]

So it your suggestion to knock all of them down and leave one strong queen cell up?

Keep one or at most two (close together - not miles apart) QCs.
Keeping open cells gives you a better handle on timing AND less criticality on the time of knocking down any extra replacement emergency QCs if Q is no longer there.

 

[domino]

Keep one or at most two (close together - not miles apart) QCs.
Keeping open cells gives you a better handle on timing AND less criticality on the time of knocking down any extra replacement emergency QCs if Q is no longer there.

Thanks for the advice, I'll do that Monday.