very weird couple of days

[Chorlton Honey Bees]

so did an artificial swarm on the 19th April 5 frames in an nuc 1 charged Q cell and 1 capped. depending if the capped one has hatched that would give VQ 9 days to mate.

Yesterday 29th i saw the bees very busy as if they was swarming all over the front of the nuc 20 mins later all settled down this was about 5pm
at 11am this morning 30th same thing all over the front more bees than i'd shook into the nuc 9 days ago saw a small cluster in a tree 20 feet away bees in the air then all back in the nuc 15 mins later
Question
would a swarm take over a nuc as a new place to settle if their are bees in it already im 99% sure without going in the nuc that it was a swarm arriving and not leaving. But that 1% could be wrong

 

[pargyle]

Hmmm ... there's a few options.

Firstly, are you sure what you saw was swarming and not a virgin's mating entourage ? They do sometimes have quite a following as they set off on their nuptials.

Is it possible that your AS was after the colony had swarmed and what you witnessed was a caste ?

Best have a look and see if you have any other queen cells in either hive ...

 

[user 6228]

you did an AS into a Nuc?

Every swarm of what ever size wants an ideal home ... if the choice is not ideal,there may be dissent over the choice where a faction want to move on.

In an AS you do the choosing and if you dont want any chance of dissent you have to choose close to the ideal.

So if your choice for AS is a NUC you stand a chance of some dissent because the NUC is very different in volume to the ideal of ~40L , which can result in a group of bees who try drag the rest out again. if they fail to persuade the colony to leave, the dissenters may temporarily cluster nearby before returning. Note the cluster of dissenters may be extremely bad tempered.

 

[Chorlton Honey Bees]

Hmmm ... there's a few options.

Firstly, are you sure what you saw was swarming and not a virgin's mating entourage ? They do sometimes have quite a following as they set off on their nuptials.

Is it possible that your AS was after the colony had swarmed and what you witnessed was a caste ?

Best have a look and see if you have any other queen cells in either hive ...

the queen from the original hive is at another out apiary and was seen today this one is here at my home apiary.
are you saying that the VQ may have gone on her 2nd mating flight and the bees was giving her a good send off

 

[Chorlton Honey Bees]

you did an AS into a Nuc?

Every swarm of what ever size wants an ideal home ... if the choice is not ideal,there may be dissent over the choice where a faction want to move on.

In an AS you do the choosing and if you dont want any chance of dissent you have to choose close to the ideal.

So if your choice for AS is a NUC you stand a chance of some dissent because the NUC is very different in volume to the ideal of ~40L , which can result in a group of bees who try drag the rest out again. if they fail to persuade the colony to leave, the dissenters may temporarily cluster nearby before returning. Note the cluster of dissenters may be extremely bad tempered.

that was an interesting read thanks

 

[pargyle]

the queen from the original hive is at another out apiary and was seen today this one is here at my home apiary.
are you saying that the VQ may have gone on her 2nd mating flight and the bees was giving her a good send off

Yes ... that's a possibility - if the old queen is at another apiary (and she's more than three miles away) and the Nuc is where the old hive is then it's either that, a caste from the Nuc, or Derek's explanation ... I assume there is no chance of the foragers from your original hive returning to the Nuc ?

I've seen bees on the front of the hive encouraging a virgin to go off on her mating flight but not as late in the day as 5pm ..but bees never do what you expect .. perhaps that was just the overture and the following day she went ... I've also seen bees doing pretend swarms as Derek suggests.

Who knows ... your best bet is to leave them be for a few days and then check for eggs and larvae and relax ... then get them into a full size box.

It ain't easy is it ?

 

[beeno]

Hi Chorlton Honey, The fact that you had two QCs in there and that a small swarm settled and then went back into the nuc suggests to me that either you have two queens in there and a cast is on its way or they may be absconding. In either case the queen did not follow and they will try again unless one queen takes the other out in the meantime. Most activity in my hives is late afternoon at the moment as the mornings are very chilly. Let us know what happens!

 

[For want of a better word]

you did an AS into a Nuc?

Every swarm of what ever size wants an ideal home ... if the choice is not ideal,there may be dissent over the choice where a faction want to move on.

In an AS you do the choosing and if you dont want any chance of dissent you have to choose close to the ideal.

So if your choice for AS is a NUC you stand a chance of some dissent because the NUC is very different in volume to the ideal of ~40L , which can result in a group of bees who try drag the rest out again. if they fail to persuade the colony to leave, the dissenters may temporarily cluster nearby before returning. Note the cluster of dissenters may be extremely bad tempered.

I have in the past when pushed for kit "done a split" into 2 or even three nucs... not an AS in its real sense... but dividing up the colony with brood stores and bees.... seems to reduce the urge to swarm!
( Plus end up with a couple more colonies!!)

Yeghes da

 

[user 6228]

I have in the past when pushed for kit "done a split" into 2 or even three nucs... not an AS in its real sense... but dividing up the colony with brood stores and bees.... seems to reduce the urge to swarm!
( Plus end up with a couple more colonies!!)

Yeghes da

a split with brood as you say isnt a "swarm" but does it stop the "swarming faction" swarming once they have really deciding on Swarming?
we have done the always split with brood from the "stay at homes", not the "swarmers". Thus the "stay at homes" are still "stay at homes". And try hard to convince the "swarmers" that they really have swarmed and have ,at least temporarily, have the ideal nest.