Yet another swarm.

[chalkie]

Was on my plot late last night and spotted a swarm on the neighbours and thought i'd collect it in the morning, went back today swarm gone.Now tuesday's the day i go through the hives and last tuesday i removed all the queen cells from this swarmed hive hoping that this week i would have chance to do artificial swarm. Today there where 5 capped queen cells which i removed all but one, hows this possible when the book says 8 days to sealed cell, will the remaining queen cell be a scrub queen.

This colony was also a swarm that i hived on the 5th May. and more

 

[Eyeman]

Emergency queen cells- 1 or 2 day old larvae into a queen cup then sealed over in a further 4 or 5 days. So thats how they did it. The colony is queenless.
Your thinking of swarm cells - these will take 8 days from egg being layed.

 

[chalkie]

Emergency queen cells- 1 or 2 day old larvae into a queen cup then sealed over in a further 4 or 5 days. So thats how they did it. The colony is queenless.
Your thinking of swarm cells - these will take 8 days from egg being layed.

Why make emergency queen cells when the hive wasn't queenless untill yesterday.

 

[jon]

It's more likely that you missed a charged queen cup on your previous inspection and they swarmed 5 or 6 days after that. It's very easy to miss one. I do weekly inspections and a couple of times this year I have found sealed queen cells which means I has missed some on the previous inspection. Fortunately the queen was still there in each case.

 

[Eyeman]

Sorry chalkie
You were probably queenless last Tuesday when you removed all QC.

 

[chalkie]

Sorry chalkie
You were probably queenless last Tuesday when you removed all QC.

Definately wasn't queenless last tuesday as i saw the marked queen before removing cells and after, i'm almost sure that i didn't leave any charged queen cells, if i did then thats twice in as many weeks .

So i take it that the remaining cell wont be of any use whats my options now.

 

[BKF Admin]

Did you shake all the bees off each frame on your inspections ?
I often find a little stub queen cell around the outside of the frames when inspecting.

If you inspect after they have swarmed they often tear down the hatched queen cell leaving no evidence.

 

[chalkie]

Did you shake all the bees off each frame on your inspections ?
I often find a little stub queen cell around the outside of the frames when inspecting.

If you inspect after they have swarmed they often tear down the hatched queen cell leaving no evidence.

I did shake the bees off because off the swarm previously and thought your not catching me out again .

 

[BKF Admin]

Dont worry Chalkie,any beekeeper who says he has never lost a swarm would be telling fibs.

I lost one myself last month with an unclipped queen.

Do you clip ? if you did you would lose the queen maybe but not the bees.

 

[chalkie]

Dont worry Chalkie,any beekeeper who says he has never lost a swarm would be telling fibs.

I lost one myself last month with an unclipped queen.

Do you clip ? if you did you would lose the queen maybe but not the bees.

Thanks, whats my options now with the QC i take it will be of no use.

 

[BKF Admin]

Do you have a test frame you can give them ?

 

[chalkie]

Right, what i've done now is put in 2 frames with a queen from a small nuc, removed all queen cells and now hope for the best.

 

[BKF Admin]

I assume you did that yesterday and not just before your post at 3am

 

[chalkie]

I assume you did that yesterday and not just before your post at 3am

Yes m8, not in the habit of going down to the plot with my miners lamp strapped to my head at 3 in the morning, couldn't sleep , to warm and noticed the computer was still on.

 

[BKF Admin]

Did you notice there are a few of us members about at that time that do the night shift..

 

[chalkie]

Update:
Checked the hives today and the new queen from this hive has now vanished , no eggs seen, but 1 capped Qc and 5 other Qc along the bottom of the recently introduced frames nearly ready for capping, i removed them all but 1 which looked like the youngest.