[Louie]

I bought a 3 pound package of bees with Queen 4 weeks ago put them in a new hive with new foundation. Checked on them weekly and they were doing good, had some frames filled with honey and was laying, had a good brood pattern. Yesterday they swarmed, they got in the top of a 40 ft Pecan tree. I climbed as high as I could and with a bucket on a pole tried to get them. I got most but in doing I knocked some down, and they went back to the hive. I didn't go through them to see if I had the queen, and I didn't check the hive for queen cells. Have any of you had this to happen, and if so what causes this? Thanks

 

[D Coates]

Welcome to the forum. That's different... I'm not familiar with packages swarming four weeks after installation. How many frames had they drawn out and filled before they issued a swarm? I'm not sure what to tell you other than find that queen and remove her or she'll do it again and you may not be so lucky as to catch them. Leave any queen cells you find alone and possibly give them more space?

 

[Omie]

It's funny. I read in most of the older threads and in books that bees don't swarm during the first year while they are getting established and building up in a new hive. Yet I keep reading threads about new packages swarming in their first year for new BKs- what's up with that? Or am I just imagining that there are lots of new package swarms?

 

[NasalSponge]

Not true, if they get crowded it matters not how long they have been there they will swarm. I had a nuc swarm in a month and they swarmed again several weeks later even after putting them in a 10 frame deep....BeeWeaver queens are machines!! Did your hive looked crowded, lots and lots of bees? Have you gone into the hive since it swarmed?? Did it swarm or did it abscond?

 

[yamahawg]

And everybody is not kidding about the queen excluder the first year! I thought mine were doing ok with it. Started from nucs this May 1st and found a capped swarm cell in one but it hadn't swarmed yet. There were bees in super from me transferring frames of honey up. But lots and lots more below excluder. So I removed that swarm cell and the excluders in both hives on Monday. So far no swarms!

 

[fish_stix]

Bees don't swarm on a beekeeper time schedule. They swarm when it's in their best interest to swarm. Could be crowded, honeybound brood nest, or, who knows! They're bees! Forget it and move on. Look for queen cells and do not squash them! Let them raise a new queen all by their little selves.