[minz]

I have one hive of 6 that I am trying demaree method of swarm control on that I can never find the queen. The others will sometimes take a second time through the lower box (with QE over) to find her but this one box I usually end up shaking all of the bees to the lower box. Well yesterday I was 2 days late in getting to it due to some back and weather issues. I had about 6 or 7 in the top box (common) but the same in the lower box (uncommon). All QC capped. I placed a frame with a QC in each slot of a 4 way Bushkill mating queen castle with a frame of brood. I could not find the Queen still. I added one frame of brood each to the 4WQC and took the hive apart and still no. I was concerned that I had lost her to a swarm so left a nice cell in the lower box with some drawn comb.
Question: I have that hive split 5 ways, will they still swarm?
If I have placed the queen back in the mating nuc will it have a beard of bees on it today?
I did have small larvae and eggs in the hive so I figure she is still around in the last couple of days.

 

[Michael Bush]

>Question: I have that hive split 5 ways, will they still swarm?

Doubtful, but as Winnie the Pooh always says: "You never can tell with bees"

 

[Lowe land apiary]

Without seeing her its hard to tell. The cells were capped so she may have already left. But on the other hand she may still be in the parent hive. If thats the case they will probably still swarm. If moved to the queen castle she will most likely be killed by the new virgin.

 

[WBVC]

I may have misread but if you have demareed your hive and took down any QC from the top box 5 days later how would you have QC in both the upper and lower box?

 

[minz]

All the cells are capped in the QC that I moved the frames to. The frame in the parent hive is also capped. On another note it is going to go from 60 with rain to 70 to 80 with sun. I figure they will be in the trees today or tomorrow.
If I had put her in the castle would they beard the castle?
What the heck do you commercial guys do when you are down sick for 3 days during prime season? Working just the two little yards sick was enough to make me want to throw in the towel.

 

[minz]

I may have misread but if you have demareed your hive and took down any QC from the top box 5 days later how would you have QC in both the upper and lower box?

Last demaree was on the 18th for this girl.

 

[minz]

Went back yesterday evening and started through the queen castle. The third section in I found almost an entire frame of eggs so kept looking hard and found her. Man she runs! You guys want to have queen races I think I have a winner. She is a little smaller but not terribly small. She also has some more stripes rather than just the dark brown.
I pulled the hive apart and took the QC out of the main hive and went to find her in the little two frame mating nuc and it took me 10 minutes to find her a second time. I went back to the truck to grab some paint to mark her and could not find a single bottle or pen in any color.