What will happen to my queen??

[Erichalfbee]

Make them hopelessly queen-less.
Bees can make emergency QCs on three day old larvae.
Go back in to make sure you take all these away so that there is no chance they can make a queen and then put your caged new queen as normal.
Check she is out in three or four days

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Make them hopelessly queen-less.
Bees can make emergency QCs on three day old larvae.
Go back in to make sure you take all these away so that there is no chance they can make a queen and then put your caged new queen as normal.
Check she is out in three or four days

Thanks, "ericA". And the swarm or AS should take away the "fever" so my nice new Hivemaker (say) Q does not just pop a few eggs in cells, wait 8 days and head off into the sunset?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Not if she is in a nuc with few foragers, no.

 

[Eyeman]

Hi Jeff33
You should be congratulated. You've managed more than alot of other beekeepers by:
1. Keeping on top of routine inspections and find queen cells before the colony has swarmed
2. Finding the queen and separating her from the colony and placing her in a safe location
3. Following a recognised method of swarm control by raising a nucleus with the queen.

What I would do differently is:
1. Only leave one queen cell, ideally one that is still unsealed and contains a large larvae. Place a drawing pin on the top bar directly above this cell as the colony will likely make emergency QC's now the queen is out.
2. Reinspect the original colony in 7 days and remove all QC's except the one you marked. In reality any emergency QC's look very different from a health swarm cell so there isn't much difficulty telling them apart.
3. Make sure the original colony has enough supers, I add an extra one at this stage.
4. Leave the original colony 2-3 weeks before checking to see if Q right.
5. I check 2 weeks after the expected emergence date of the Queen cell as I want to catch the colony before any new brood is sealed. This gives you a great opportunity to use OA as all the mites will be phoretic (on the bees).
5. To reduce the inevitable congestion that will soon arise in the nucleus I remove sealed brood as and when necessary and transfer it to boost other colonies: so use the nucleus as a brood factory.
6. At the end of the process you will hopefully have a colony with a new queen and a nucleus with the old queen (always worth having backup queens)

 

[oliver90owner]

Lets be honest here, for all the new beeks reading this. It is not a proper A/S, but just a round about way of making a split (or more than one).

As stated previously, there is no ending of the swarming urge, no provision for discouraging casts (by depleting the new queen section of flying bees, etc.

Reading the thread it seemed the underlying reason for the colony swarming was lack of space - poster indicated a lack of kit?

Far better to avoid swarming. Lucky they are in that position, maybe. Too cold around here to get to that stage just yet. Another week - one with warm weather- may well change things, mind.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Too cold around here to get to that stage just yet.

Just a word to the less-experienced than RAB. It has been a freezing, slow start to the season here but my swarmy strain started cells as near as I can tell two days later than last year. So three, given the leap year; inside an inspection cycle anyway. Could almost set a calendar by the wretched things

Now we're back on track I'm giving up on my drifted question and will experiment.

 

[Poly Hive]

Greed springs to mind here and is the newbies worst enemy.

Lesson#1.

The bees can and will ONLY go at their speed. YOUR job is to gently guide them.

Lesson#2. It is an expensive and unavoidable fact that you NEED spare kit.

Lesson#3. You cannot learn what you need to know at times from the web. There are some excellent books that really should be required reading. Books make you ponder, make you think not sit like you are in a home cinema with the info flowing unabsorbed past. Brother Adam on queen intro and Manley on the same are VERY worth while.

PH

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Snelgrove - The Introduction of Queen Bees

 

[Finman]

.
This is huge operation. Suggestions given:

( perhaps the colony is not big. how long it stands)

- rearing new queens
- kill queencells
- do more queencells
- add hives in yard
- laying queen is in prison in a small nuc, where it cannot lay.
- make laying workers; make the hive hopelesly queenless....which one
isn't hopeless enough, why more queenless
- start reading book
- do not listen experinced beeks. Walk on your own highway, like Sinatra

And few suggestions, but I do not know, how they are connected to swarming. Perhaps experimental beekeeping.
.

S.O.S

.

 

[Finman]

.
My suggestion:

Make a box of foundation frames. Put that box into original hive site.

Put into foundation box that nuc hive's one brood frame, two frames food and the laying queen.

The rest of frames into a new site where they have aproximately been.
But an excluder between floor and first box that swarms cannot escape.

Let the queen cells be there. If the brood colony abandon swarming fever, it kills the extra queen cells. If not, then a new thinking.

By a new queen, and do not spoil your hive for one virgin.
.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Snelgrove - The Introduction of Queen Bees

Bought; thanks, JBM.

ADD: PS, OP @jeff33 : another great read http://www.biodlarna.se/website1/1.0.1.0/1104/The many uses of a snelgrove board.pdf