Problem with hive - weird swarm and other issues

[honeydog]

Hi, All,

I started bee keeping this year and I'm really confused about what's going on. I have two hives. The first is the issue. I installed a package in late April. It was doing amazingly well. A couple weeks ago, I added the first honey super to the two brood chambers. The top brood chamber was only about half full, but I want to be cautious about them getting too crowded. Three days later, they swarmed. They hung out way up on a tree for about an hour and then amazingly, the whole swarm returned to the hive. (Here's a video I made for my nieces http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXMNHIjK9LU&feature=plcp)

I did an inspection, but didn't know what to look for exactly. Everything looked pretty normal.

It's been about two weeks and today I went in and did a good inspection. They are filling up the two brood chambers, though there's no real activity in the honey super. There are a bunch of queen cups in the top brood chamber. I didn't see the original marked queen, and there's no evidence of the queen. Lots of uncapped honey cells, but I didn't see any eggs or capped cells with larva. There do seem to be LOTS of bees, though, so I suspect they didn't swarm again when I wasn't around to notice.

What should I do here, if anything?

Thanks!
Jen

[jonlorusso]

As I understand it (2nd year beekeeper), the bees will return if the queen has not left with the swarm. If for instance she is clipped, she will be unable to leave and the bees will return. I've also heard of beekeepers simulating thunderstorms (using pots and pans). The sound apparently can drive the bees back into the hive. I don't recall where I read this, but I'm pretty sure I didn't make it up

Perhaps someone with more experience will give you a better answer.

[David LaFerney]

If there is no evidence of a queen then that is the real concern. Give them a frame of open brood from the other hive and if you don't have a queen it will have capped queen cells visible on it in 4-5 days. If they don't build queen cells then you have a queen - although it might be a virgin queen that hasn't started laying yet, so you should continue to monitor.

A hive that has swarmed can still have lots of bees, but it usually also has queen cells that you can find - sometimes they remove most evidence of used cells. Not usually though. Unless you are really on top of it it can be hard to tell if it has swarmed by population alone.

[honeydog]

Thank you so much for the advice. I'll give that a try this afternoon.

[David LaFerney]

Good luck. Fortunate that you have 2.

[honeydog]

Man were they *testy* this morning when I switched frames! I got stung twice through my long-sleeved shirt - the only times I've been stung except that once I brought the lawn mower too close. Time to get a bee suit, I guess. This won't be the last time I have to deal with them in 100 degree weather.

[honeydog]

I checked today and there were queen cells on the new frame. How nice that these bees are finally doing something expected.

Do I just wait a couple weeks now and check back in on them for evidence of eggs and larva? Is there something I should do in the meantime?

Thanks again for all the advice!

[David LaFerney]

It will be about 24 days from the time that you gave them the brood frame until you are very likely to see eggs - which might not be easy to find BTW. By one month brood should be readily apparent if all goes well. Mark your calendar - I write the date on the hive top - I can never remember. Before then it is hard to be conclusive as to success.

If at that time you don't have a laying queen you need to go ahead and take quick action to prevent bigger problems SHB or Wax moth, laying worker, general decline. You can help to prevent those by giving more brood frames with bees along the way.

If it isn't successful this time of year I usually shake out the hive and let them drift to the others, but that's just me.