I am a newbee who started with one package on April 26.
On June 14, I tried to evenly split my only colony. I checked after 2 days and split B had several queen cells centered on a comb. There were no queen cells on the bottoms of any combs in either split A or split B.
Split Q had a much larger field force and so I switched hive positions to try to equalize. It worked too well and split B got most of the field force. I assumed that would be alright since Q was the queen right hive and would keep building up while B was waiting for their new queen (which it has been doing).
On 6/29, I posted because split B was putting on an awesome display that I hoped signified a mating flight of their new queen. Split B swarmed the next day. Why would that happen if the established queen was in split Q? Would B swarm with a virgin queen just because of the large population? Would they swarm without leaving a queen with the population that remaining behind?
Not knowing, I have assumed (hoped) there would still be a new queen in split B, despite the swarm. So until yesterday, I did not intrude because I keep reading that getting in the hive can make the bees unhappy with a new queen. Yesterday, I checked the bottom of a box and there were swarm cells with at least one being open. Why would a queen-less hive create swarm cells? I did not see them on day two of the split when I saw the queen cells located in the center of the comb.
Split Q, during all this time, has been building up nicely. And I am still hopeful that I will see brood in split B in a few weeks, but I am trying to understand what happened.
On June 14, I tried to evenly split my only colony. I checked after 2 days and split B had several queen cells centered on a comb. There were no queen cells on the bottoms of any combs in either split A or split B.
Split Q had a much larger field force and so I switched hive positions to try to equalize. It worked too well and split B got most of the field force. I assumed that would be alright since Q was the queen right hive and would keep building up while B was waiting for their new queen (which it has been doing).
On 6/29, I posted because split B was putting on an awesome display that I hoped signified a mating flight of their new queen. Split B swarmed the next day. Why would that happen if the established queen was in split Q? Would B swarm with a virgin queen just because of the large population? Would they swarm without leaving a queen with the population that remaining behind?
Not knowing, I have assumed (hoped) there would still be a new queen in split B, despite the swarm. So until yesterday, I did not intrude because I keep reading that getting in the hive can make the bees unhappy with a new queen. Yesterday, I checked the bottom of a box and there were swarm cells with at least one being open. Why would a queen-less hive create swarm cells? I did not see them on day two of the split when I saw the queen cells located in the center of the comb.
Split Q, during all this time, has been building up nicely. And I am still hopeful that I will see brood in split B in a few weeks, but I am trying to understand what happened.
