Split taken over by swarm

**kc1985** · 03-20-2011, 09:07 PM

I made a walk away split on sat ,8 days ago by taking a 10 frame deep and spliting it into 2 five frame deeps ,leaving the queen and a med super with some honey in it on the original hive. I had not looked in the new hive yet to see if they were making a queen. Today another of my hives begain to swarm and landed on a fence. I started to get ready to try to hive them and they were only on the fence for about 5 minutes when the started to leave. They went to the deep that I was spliting a week ago with no queen.The swarm was about the size of a basketball. My question is this: If the split was making a queen will they tear down the queen cell now or will this hive swarm again when a new queen hatches. Also since this hive might be getting crowded how long should I wait before opening it up and adding a super to give them some room. thanks Keith

**Ted Kretschmann** · 03-20-2011, 09:17 PM

Well the split had brood, honey. That is everything a swarm needs to get a head start. Since the swarm has taken over the split, I would super it. Now the next question, what race of bees are these???? Also what part of Florida are you in??? What I am getting at, upsurption is an primarily an Africanized bee trait. Most of the time the upsurping swarm is about the size of a grapefruit. So I would not really want to comment, as you have written the swarm was good size. A lot of beekeepers in Florida are posting some strange things that are happening right now in their bees. There is a fellow that post on bee source that is from Florida that has the handle, America's Beekeeper and is very knowledgeable. I would send him a private message and get his opinion on what is going on with the bees and his opinion on the managment of the colony. TK

**scdw43** · 03-20-2011, 09:17 PM

Wait a couble of days to let them settle then go in to see if you have a queen and is she laying, put them in a ten frame box. If they are as big as you say, you might want to set a box on top.

**Michael Bush** · 03-21-2011, 03:51 AM

I have seen EHB do this, but not as often as I've heard of AHB doing this. I'd keep an eye on their temperament and if in doubt, requeen before they get stronger.