A very interesting day today here in the hudson valley, NY. But I am very confused.
While at work on Thursday (2 days ago) my son called to say a hive was swarming but then when rain came, they retreated back into the hive. Yesterday was raining and windy and they did not swarm. Today is breezy but clear and I knew what was coming.
(FYI this hive had, unfortunately swarmed 10 days ago while I was away for work. My wife saw it leave and there was nothing she could do. None of our local beeks could make the trip to get it. I had decided not to go in and thin the queen cells because I had had an experience last year when I did that and no queen resulted. Anyway I digress.)
I inspected early today at 8:30 AM and for the first time as a beek I heard a piping queen on a frame. This queen would have been no more than 10 days old and as young as 5. I assume she would be mated but I am not sure. I did not see eggs but I was trying to move fast so I did not look carefully.
Becuse I had her in my sights I captured her in a queen cage. I found 4 large fully capped queen cells, and 8 or so partially formed cells. I split the hive keeping 3 of the cells, and destroying the rest. I moved this split hive to another location in the apiary thinking the older flying bees would return to the original site with the captured queen.
I thought I would have stopped the swarm from occuring but I was wrong.
At about 10:30 the hive with the captured queen swarmed! It was a small swarm but it alighted on a branch. I assumed when they found out there was no queen with them they would return but after an hour they were still there. To me this made no sense.
Figuring I would lose them if I was not careful (and given my other previous swarm losses) I hived them by shaking them from the high branch into a large tupperware box and then next into a hive. I had already installed two frames of brood in many stages, pollen and honey in this hive, which I had pulled from a different hive. I closed up this swarm hive. At 5 PM they appear to still be in it.
So I have a split with 3 capped queen cells. A swarm caught hive and the original hive with a captured piping queen.
Does the swarm from the original hive with the captured queen make sense?
Does piping tell us anything about the age of the queen? For example, do I know if she is mated?
Could there have been two queens in the hive pre-today's-swarm?
Do I need that third queen cell? (I might use it to build a resource hive if not.)
Thanks, in advance, for any thoughts you might have on this odd (at least to me) situation.
Ben
While at work on Thursday (2 days ago) my son called to say a hive was swarming but then when rain came, they retreated back into the hive. Yesterday was raining and windy and they did not swarm. Today is breezy but clear and I knew what was coming.
(FYI this hive had, unfortunately swarmed 10 days ago while I was away for work. My wife saw it leave and there was nothing she could do. None of our local beeks could make the trip to get it. I had decided not to go in and thin the queen cells because I had had an experience last year when I did that and no queen resulted. Anyway I digress.)
I inspected early today at 8:30 AM and for the first time as a beek I heard a piping queen on a frame. This queen would have been no more than 10 days old and as young as 5. I assume she would be mated but I am not sure. I did not see eggs but I was trying to move fast so I did not look carefully.
Becuse I had her in my sights I captured her in a queen cage. I found 4 large fully capped queen cells, and 8 or so partially formed cells. I split the hive keeping 3 of the cells, and destroying the rest. I moved this split hive to another location in the apiary thinking the older flying bees would return to the original site with the captured queen.
I thought I would have stopped the swarm from occuring but I was wrong.
At about 10:30 the hive with the captured queen swarmed! It was a small swarm but it alighted on a branch. I assumed when they found out there was no queen with them they would return but after an hour they were still there. To me this made no sense.
Figuring I would lose them if I was not careful (and given my other previous swarm losses) I hived them by shaking them from the high branch into a large tupperware box and then next into a hive. I had already installed two frames of brood in many stages, pollen and honey in this hive, which I had pulled from a different hive. I closed up this swarm hive. At 5 PM they appear to still be in it.
So I have a split with 3 capped queen cells. A swarm caught hive and the original hive with a captured piping queen.
Does the swarm from the original hive with the captured queen make sense?
Does piping tell us anything about the age of the queen? For example, do I know if she is mated?
Could there have been two queens in the hive pre-today's-swarm?
Do I need that third queen cell? (I might use it to build a resource hive if not.)
Thanks, in advance, for any thoughts you might have on this odd (at least to me) situation.
Ben