Why did they swarm?

[gardenbees]

This hive had two deeps with two shallow supers. Last week I pulled four frames of brood to give to weaker hives and replaced with frames of SC starter strips. They threw a huge swarm today that I was lucky enough to catch in a nuc. There were so many bees that I think the nuc will be too small very soon. I thought I had done everything right but perhaps I was just a little too late in opening up the broodnest. Theresa.

[Sundance]

Sounds like you were too late. The decision had been made.

Nice that you caught the swarm though...

[gardenbees]

Yeah, this is my second year and i just happened to be home when they decided to cluster on my wheelbarrow. It was easier than I thought and I only got stung twice (my fault). Theresa.

[FordGuy]

I am still learnign, but some questions that came to mind were: Had they started storing nectar in the brood chamb? Was there a honey dome in the brood chamber? Where was teh cluster, in the top against the honey dome or against the bottom board? How old was the queen? Did you see a queen? How was her laying pattern? Have you seen any white wax on the frames? Bridge comb with white wax? when you took out the other frames, did you see capped queen cells?

[Michael Bush]

>I thought I had done everything right but perhaps I was just a little too late in opening up the broodnest.

I love swarms when I catch them. smile.gif

If you opened up the brood nest when they have just started backfilling you can usually head them off. If they get very far down the path backfilling and especially if they've made queen cells, I've never been able to deter them without a split.

[SandyC]

I'm in the north...when is the best time for the split. I was thinking in early May, just before everything starts blooming.

[ainsof]

Hi Folks,

MB: What's "backfilling"?

[Michael Bush]

>What's "backfilling"?

When the bees start filling the brood nest with nectar to restrict the queen laying so she they can slim her down so she can fly and to unemploy the nurse bees so they won't be needed so they can swarm. It's the next to the last step in swarm preparation. The last is starting swarm cells.