Whoops

[Millet]

It seems my little artificial swarm plan did not work, i have been sent this picture as i will not be back to the hive till Wednesday, the hive with the bricks on top has the 2x Queen cells and the one behind has or did have the old Queen, as far as i can make from the picture the old Queen has gone back to her original hive ? , or gone awol , before this picture was taken they was twice as many bees in the sky, what are your experienced views on this picture.
Thanks
Steve.

 

[B+.]

I what are your experienced views on this picture.
Thanks

I think they swarmed with the first queen to emerge leaving the other queen in her cell to emerge in due course
OR
they swarmed with the old queen and one/both cells are due to emerge

 

[Millet]

I think they swarmed with the first queen to emerge leaving the other queen in her cell to emerge in due course
OR
they swarmed with the old queen and one/both cells are due to emerge

Thank you for the quick reply, my lady friend has been near them all day in the green house and she is convinced they have not swarmed but i can not say for certain, i have just got of the phone and both hives have gone back to normal with plenty of traffic coming and going.

 

[Erichalfbee]

That sure looks like the hive in the foreground is swarming
I hope your LF enjoyed it, it is a wonderful sight to see

 

[Millet]

That sure looks like the hive in the foreground is swarming
I hope your LF enjoyed it, it is a wonderful sight to see

I thought that from the picture but if i have my dates correct them cells will be 12/13 days old, however i'm not able to rule out missing the more advanced play cups from my inspection on the 5th.
A swarm flew above my lady friends head last year around 20ft high, she said that they could be heard before she spotted it, they resembled the sound of a spitfire she said, she has heard and seen nothing from here but i will know for sure on Wednesday.
Thanks
Steve.

 

[Swarm]

Have a look for bee activity in the surrounding area, they could be clustered fairly close by.

 

[Millet]

Have a look for bee activity in the surrounding area, they could be clustered fairly close by.

I would Steve but i am around 70 mile away at the moment, is it possible that the old Queen could have headed back to her original hive.

 

[snelgrove]

I would not leave more than one queen cell and destroy emergency cells later. The old queen with an artificial swarm often swarms anyway, that's why I never use it. Many will disagree, I only speak from my own experience of doing mny artificial swarms with both drawn comb and foundation.
That's why I now resort to other methods. Sorry but I could of told you so

 

[Millet]

I would not leave more than one queen cell and destroy emergency cells later. The old queen with an artificial swarm often swarms anyway, that's why I never use it. Many will disagree, I only speak from my own experience of doing mny artificial swarms with both drawn comb and foundation.
That's why I now resort to other methods. Sorry but I could of told you so

No need to apologize , its all a learning curve for me and mistakes will rarely happen twice, i just need telling if i am doing something wrong from more experienced folk like yourself, next time i will do it different if a swarm has departed, above all that i just hope i have some bees left when i get there on Wednesday.

 

[snelgrove]

No need to apologize , its all a learning curve for me and mistakes will rarely happen twice, i just need telling if i am doing something wrong from more experienced folk like yourself, next time i will do it different if a swarm has departed, above all that i just hope i have some bees left when i get there on Wednesday.

We all make mistakes, we have all lost swarms, however some won't admit it. The main thing is to learn from your mistakes and not to do the same mistakes twice.

 

[Swarm]

And sometimes they will swarm no matter what you do, bless them. It's a lovely evening for a stroll, ask your LF to have a snoop around, they could be hanging in the nearest tree, generally within a hundred yards or so. If found, they might still be there by Wednesday

 

[Millet]

And sometimes they will swarm no matter what you do, bless them. It's a lovely evening for a stroll, ask your LF to have a snoop around, they could be hanging in the nearest tree, generally within a hundred yards or so. If found, they might still be there by Wednesday

I have just asked her and she politely told me where to go, understandably as there is woods and trees everywhere, i will have to have a look when i get there, the worst thing about it is i could have been there but the over stretched NHS have mucked my appointment up, its next week not this week , i will not complain though as the poor Doctors and Nurses are run of there feet, i will however fire a update on here when i eventually get there.

 

[beeno]

I thought that from the picture but if i have my dates correct them cells will be 12/13 days old, however i'm not able to rule out missing the more advanced play cups from my inspection on the 5th.
A swarm flew above my lady friends head last year around 20ft high, she said that they could be heard before she spotted it, they resembled the sound of a spitfire she said, she has heard and seen nothing from here but i will know for sure on Wednesday.
Thanks
Steve.

Hi Millet,
If you removed queen cells on the 5th they could have made new QC from one or two year old larvae or you could have missed a slightly older cell and been very luck that the old queen was still there.
Swarms in my opinion are off and away very quickly. This swirling in the picture looks to me like an aborted swarm attempt. They do not know where the virgin is, she did not leave the hive and they are forced to return. She would be young of course and not hardened off ready to fly. They will probably try again tomorrow.

 

[Millet]

Hi Millet,
If you removed queen cells on the 5th they could have made new QC from one or two year old larvae or you could have missed a slightly older cell and been very luck that the old queen was still there.
Swarms in my opinion are off and away very quickly. This swirling in the picture looks to me like an aborted swarm attempt. They do not know where the virgin is, she did not leave the hive and they are forced to return. She would be young of course and not hardened off ready to fly. They will probably try again tomorrow.

I have had two bait hives in place on a shed roof for around 2wks, one is a national brood box with old wax placed inside, the other is a 5 frame Nuc that i made, both have two frames of foundation inside and lemon grass oil, i have been on the phone this morning to my lady friend and there is around 6 bees at any one time inside the Nuc, if i am lucky they might head for that if they swarm again or if they have already swarmed and hanging around on a branch somewhere.
Thanks
Steve.

 

[Millet]

My home made NUC was showing a lot of activity yesterday, on opening it up it had bees on the two frames and in the middle of them was my old Queen,
they have started drawing comb but it has left the hive she come from full of bees but no queen.
The other two queen cells had not hatched in the new hive so I pulled one too bits too have a look and there was a fully formed queen in there that I removed, there was however new charged queen cells so I stuck a frame of sealed brood and the frame with a uncapped queen cell on in the Queen - hive.
Would I be better of removing them queen cells and move the full hive over to where the Nuc is and put the Queen in there with some frames of sealed brood and stores, or just leave them too it.
Regardless of all that my lady friend got stung for the first time in her life, one on the backside and one on the back of the leg, the dog also got stung and the horse that was nowhere near.
Does anyone have any better ideas or do you give up..
Thanks
Steve

p.s ideally I only want two hives here if I have a third one I will have too put it elsewhere.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I might be tempted to move the hive the bees came from to where the nuc is and leave one open queen cell in. Make a new box and put the queen in there with a frame of brood and those frames they have drawn. There you have your AS. You can always unite before the summer flow and you're back to two hives
How lucky that they swarmed into the nuc.

 

[theeggman]

Hi Millet,
If you removed queen cells on the 5th they could have made new QC from one or two year old larvae or you could have missed a slightly older cell and been very luck that the old queen was still there.
Swarms in my opinion are off and away very quickly. This swirling in the picture looks to me like an aborted swarm attempt. They do not know where the virgin is, she did not leave the hive and they are forced to return. She would be young of course and not hardened off ready to fly. They will probably try again tomorrow.

Beeno, I couldn't resist.

 

[Millet]

I might be tempted to move the hive the bees came from to where the nuc is and leave one open queen cell in. Make a new box and put the queen in there with a frame of brood and those frames they have drawn. There you have your AS. You can always unite before the summer flow and you're back to two hives
How lucky that they swarmed into the nuc.

Thank you for that, yes I was lucky they chose the NUC which they chosen over the national brood box near by.
Could I not just remove the Queen cells and put the brood box near the Nuc and put the Queen in there with as many bees out of the Q- hive that I can keep in there during the move.
The Nuc is not in a ideal place, I put it on a shed roof which is the highest spot I have,it will need moving eventually as it is in the garden a little close for comfort to the cottage but I will deal with that later.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The flying bees will go back to where they used to live.
How far from the nuc is the brood box you want to move?
Or....you could leave the queen where she is, give her a frame of stores and that frame of sealed brood and let the full sized hive raise their own queen from one QC you choose

 

[beeno]

Beeno, I couldn't resist.

That's ok, I just noticed it myself.