First year beekeeper here. Two weeks ago my two hives swarmed. In short, I was not able to catch either swarm. It looked like one swarm came back to the hive though since the hive was covered in bees and I could not locate that swarm where they were first settling. That same hive swarmed a week later and I was able to catch that and put it in a new box with two frames from the original hive. That second swarm was one week ago.
I figured it was my original queen that had swarmed with them, so today I went in to mark her and decided to clip her wing in hopes of reducing future swarm risk. (I learned this on YouTube from the University of Guelph page.) I know that won't prevent it, but I've heard it can buy you time. I didn't think to wait to see if she was laying, nor did I see any evidence of laying after one week.
Later in the day, I found that marked queen in the middle of my yard in the grass. She had left the hive and was unable to fly. Now I'm worried that instead of clipping the wing of the original queen, I clipped the wing of a virgin queen of an afterswarm who had not finished mating. She is a good sized girl, but not as big as the original queen. Bigger than a new virgin queen though.
Worried that I might leave that hive queenless, I decided to add another frame from one of the hives that still had a capped swarm cell on it. My hope is that they will raise up that queen.
I have the clipped queen in a cage with some nurse bees, wondering if she is viable. I'm considering putting her in a nuc box with a frame of bees to see if she will start laying in a couple of weeks. Does anyone have any other ideas? I'm kind of feeling like an idiot right now.
I figured it was my original queen that had swarmed with them, so today I went in to mark her and decided to clip her wing in hopes of reducing future swarm risk. (I learned this on YouTube from the University of Guelph page.) I know that won't prevent it, but I've heard it can buy you time. I didn't think to wait to see if she was laying, nor did I see any evidence of laying after one week.
Later in the day, I found that marked queen in the middle of my yard in the grass. She had left the hive and was unable to fly. Now I'm worried that instead of clipping the wing of the original queen, I clipped the wing of a virgin queen of an afterswarm who had not finished mating. She is a good sized girl, but not as big as the original queen. Bigger than a new virgin queen though.
Worried that I might leave that hive queenless, I decided to add another frame from one of the hives that still had a capped swarm cell on it. My hope is that they will raise up that queen.
I have the clipped queen in a cage with some nurse bees, wondering if she is viable. I'm considering putting her in a nuc box with a frame of bees to see if she will start laying in a couple of weeks. Does anyone have any other ideas? I'm kind of feeling like an idiot right now.