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I looked out the window this morning and saw an amazing sight. One of my long hives had a beard of bees covering the front of the hive and dripping down the legs. I knew there were a lot of bees in the hive, but this was my best ventilated hive, and had never bearded before.
So, falling into panic mode, I jumped into my beesuit and rushed out. I looked inside, and quickly found a few swarm cells. I took a few frames and put them in a nuc box, looking for the queen. I went back and forth through 25 frames and couldn't find her anywhere. My thought was if I could find her, I'd make a cut-down split and maybe save a few pounds of bees. But, I couldn't find her. I brushed some of the beard into the nuc and went back to looking. Couldn't find her-- this was a hive that had thick layers of bees on almost every frame.
There was still a pretty good-sized clump of bees hanging on the hive legs, so I got another empty nuc box, and brushed them into it. And there she was, a nice fat golden queen. I dumped her into the nuc that was full of frames and her bees, put a second nuc body with a mix of empty comb and undrawn frames above and departed, with a cloud of angry bees whooshing around my head. The new nuc is only a few feet from the old hive, unfortunately, and I have no way to move it further away, for now.
My question is, could this save the hive from swarming, or was I too late?
This was the second time this year I had to make a cut-down split to avoid swarming. The long hives make a LOT of bees, it seems. But since they're more accessible, it's a little easier to keep up with what they're up to. I just got back from a few days away, and I guess things got out of hand while I was gone.
So, falling into panic mode, I jumped into my beesuit and rushed out. I looked inside, and quickly found a few swarm cells. I took a few frames and put them in a nuc box, looking for the queen. I went back and forth through 25 frames and couldn't find her anywhere. My thought was if I could find her, I'd make a cut-down split and maybe save a few pounds of bees. But, I couldn't find her. I brushed some of the beard into the nuc and went back to looking. Couldn't find her-- this was a hive that had thick layers of bees on almost every frame.
There was still a pretty good-sized clump of bees hanging on the hive legs, so I got another empty nuc box, and brushed them into it. And there she was, a nice fat golden queen. I dumped her into the nuc that was full of frames and her bees, put a second nuc body with a mix of empty comb and undrawn frames above and departed, with a cloud of angry bees whooshing around my head. The new nuc is only a few feet from the old hive, unfortunately, and I have no way to move it further away, for now.
My question is, could this save the hive from swarming, or was I too late?
This was the second time this year I had to make a cut-down split to avoid swarming. The long hives make a LOT of bees, it seems. But since they're more accessible, it's a little easier to keep up with what they're up to. I just got back from a few days away, and I guess things got out of hand while I was gone.