[michos]

My one hive is just starting its second year. I did my best to prevent a swarm by adding another deep and checking for queen cells but, alas, today they swarmed. Luckily I happened to be outside and saw them in a neighbors tree. Ill leave out the details of me freaking out and tearing my house apart getting supplies ready to collect them (like a true novice). I do believe I was successful in transporting them back to the hive. I almost lost the queen when I dumped them in but saw her clinging to a blade of grass on the ground and was able to pick her up and put her in the hive - im pretty sure she ended up in the hive anyways - about 95%. So now what? Is there anything I should do to A) make sure that the queen really is inside and B) prevent them from swarming a second time?


Many thanks!

 

[danno]

If you are saying you dumped the swarm back in its original hive then I'm suprised they have not already left a second time.

 

[Brandy]

Can't quite tell, but did you dump the swarm back into the hive they came from, or into a new hive?? If you just put them back into the original hive, be ready to go get them again.....

Looks like danno and I replied at the same time!!

 

[MrHappy]

Yeap, I've seen it a lot. If you don't give them a new hive, then they will leave again. They are already in swarm mode and looking to find a new place to live. Also, if you kill all the queen cells, then they will still leave, and the existing hive will not have a queen to support it, so don't kill the queen cells. If you don't have the equipment or don't have the space for another hive, see if someone near you wants a bunch of bees.

 

[toekneepea]

If you did put them back into the same hive, they haven't left, and you have the equipment, make a split.

Find the queen and move some frames of workers and brood (no queen cells) into a new box. Leave the queen cells and remaining bees/brood in the original box. Good luck.

Tony P.

 

[michos]

well...dang...I DID put them back into the same hive. I thought this was an option. hmmm. well, i dont see a swarm yet so i will try and split the hive. Any other recommendations would be great!

 

[michos]

I do have another box almost ready. I just need some more frames. I can run out and grab them quickly. I dont see a swarm yet so hopefully they havent gone yet

 

[danno]

I always have the best luck moving the new swarm to a new location. You can always move them back in a week or 2

 

[michos]

I always have the best luck moving the new swarm to a new location. You can always move them back in a week or 2

Thanks for the advice everyone. I found the queen and put her and the brood frame she was on into another deep. I put 2 more brood frames with bees and another frame that had honey in as well. So total she should have 3 brood frames and a frame with honey along with the bees that were on the frames. should this be enough for her to start or should I put more? Also, other than feeding them, is there anything else I should do?

As for the original hive that is now queenless, should I wait and see if they will produce another queen or should I just go ahead and order one online?

Many thanks!

 

[wadehump]

Never have I read in any books or on any Bee forum where some said to dump them back into the swarm hive.:scratch:

 

[danno]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I found the queen and put her and the brood frame she was on into another deep. I put 2 more brood frames with bees and another frame that had honey in as well. So total she should have 3 brood frames and a frame with honey along with the bees that were on the frames. should this be enough for her to start or should I put more? Also, other than feeding them, is there anything else I should do?

As for the original hive that is now queenless, should I wait and see if they will produce another queen or should I just go ahead and order one online?

Many thanks!

So what you did here is a walk away split. Hope it all works for you. As I stated if you can move the split you increase you odds of them staying put. Don't worry about this at this point but next year load them up and take them to a friends house for a week or so then bring them back

 

[michos]

Never have I read in any books or on any Bee forum where some said to dump them back into the swarm hive.:scratch:[/QUinch:

doh... I feel stupid...I must have misunderstood someone. In any case, ive got the split set up and hopefully it will work. I assume I should just leave them alone and feed at this point.

As for the old colony, I just did a full inspection and see at least 2-3 if not more swarm cells that I either missed a week ago or are recent. I still havent decided if im going to order a new queen or just let them re-queen themselves. Any opinions on this given the scenario? I assume that, If I order a new queen, ill need to take the swarm cells out, correct? How much time do I have to make my mind up?

 

[JakeDatc]

The hive made it through winter and is laying plenty to swarm.. so that set of genes seems good? at this point let them hatch a new one and see how it goes.

if you moved open brood or eggs you may want to find a frame of pollen for the lil childrens.

 

[beepro]

You don't really have much time left to make up your mind before they issue another swarm because
of the hatched virgin. This will give you a week or so to decide what to do. As soon as the virgin can
fly they will go with her. My idea is to let them requeen and further evaluate. Then, yes, you have to remove the queen cells
to keep just 2 cells. Or you can split this hive or other hives to as many queens as you want to keep. Though the original
hive will be smaller after the many splits. Now you have many nuc hives.

 

[MrHappy]

I'm thinking another thing that can be done is to swap the old and new hive. So put the new hive in the old location. This will return most of the workers to the old queen. Right now, with only 3 frames, she has to wait until the workers hatch, get old enough to fly, and then start bringing in nectar.

If you put the new box, with the old queen, in the old location, the workers will return to her because they are oriented to that location. This will leave a bunch of the nurse bees with the new queen, how it is normally, and the workers with the old queen. By the time the new queen hatches and is ready to fly and lay, the nurse bees will be ready to fly also, and they will orient to the new location and bring in everything the new queen needs to succeed.

This is how I would do it, and it's not to late to do it still.

 

[danno]

I don't know if you are treating or not but either way a colony making it through one winter doesn't not mean that you have any special mite resistance as stated above. Mite loads don't over take them the first year.