thorn
Drone Bee
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2009
- Messages
- 1,510
- Reaction score
- 544
- Location
- An Essex boy stranded in Leeds
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- It varies.
On 24 May my bee buddy and I inspected the one hive then sited in my garden. We found the queen, eggs, and two unsealed queen cups, which we took down.
On 31 May, BB inspected alone. He couldn't find the queen, nor any eggs, but there were two sealed and some unsealed queen cups. He felt we must have missed a swarm. He therefore split the colony, leaving one sealed cup in the original hive, and moving the other, along with brood and nurse bees, to the other, a couple of feet to the side.
Last Saturday, while I was 100 miles from home, my wife called to say there were a lot of bees in the air and around the front of the hives. She didn't know which hive they were from, but was thought they all went back inside after a short while. The same thing apparently happened on Sunday, while I was at a swarm control demonstration. I assumed that this was because a queen had hatched and was off on a mating flight
On Monday I got a call at work to say that there was a swarm that had settled in a neighbour's tree. I was 18 miles away and by the time I got home they'd disappeared, leaving just a few returning scouts around the tree.
On Tuesday I got home and my neighbour told me there was a swarm in her hedge. I collected them - a good sized cluster, probably too many to be a cast, and put them in a nuc near the other hives.
Yesterday I got home to be told by my neighbour that a swarm had clustered in a tree in her garden, but had by then disappeared. The new nuc was still occupied, and both the other hives had bees flying.
So, theoretically I lost the queen in mid-May, and the two new queens should only just have hatched, and possibly gone off on mating flights. The alternative is that BB missed the original queen and eggs on 31 May, but he's a lot better at spotting eggs than me, and looked hard.
But why so many swarms? Are they popping out to see what's around, and returning each time, as I know happened on Saturday (though I don't know if they clustered on that occasion)? At least one of the hives was queenless when it was set up on 31 May, so only one should be swarming, surely. Any thoughts and advice?
On 31 May, BB inspected alone. He couldn't find the queen, nor any eggs, but there were two sealed and some unsealed queen cups. He felt we must have missed a swarm. He therefore split the colony, leaving one sealed cup in the original hive, and moving the other, along with brood and nurse bees, to the other, a couple of feet to the side.
Last Saturday, while I was 100 miles from home, my wife called to say there were a lot of bees in the air and around the front of the hives. She didn't know which hive they were from, but was thought they all went back inside after a short while. The same thing apparently happened on Sunday, while I was at a swarm control demonstration. I assumed that this was because a queen had hatched and was off on a mating flight
On Monday I got a call at work to say that there was a swarm that had settled in a neighbour's tree. I was 18 miles away and by the time I got home they'd disappeared, leaving just a few returning scouts around the tree.
On Tuesday I got home and my neighbour told me there was a swarm in her hedge. I collected them - a good sized cluster, probably too many to be a cast, and put them in a nuc near the other hives.
Yesterday I got home to be told by my neighbour that a swarm had clustered in a tree in her garden, but had by then disappeared. The new nuc was still occupied, and both the other hives had bees flying.
So, theoretically I lost the queen in mid-May, and the two new queens should only just have hatched, and possibly gone off on mating flights. The alternative is that BB missed the original queen and eggs on 31 May, but he's a lot better at spotting eggs than me, and looked hard.
But why so many swarms? Are they popping out to see what's around, and returning each time, as I know happened on Saturday (though I don't know if they clustered on that occasion)? At least one of the hives was queenless when it was set up on 31 May, so only one should be swarming, surely. Any thoughts and advice?
