hi
my first crack at a post anywhere,so here goes.
on the 8th march we removed a queen and two frames of brood from a strong 3 box hive(8frame,single brood box),made a nuc up and took queen to our nuc yard,we also removed excluder from original hive.
14 march sighted 7 queen cells in original hive
24 march my mate is in stress mode,a big swarm is in flight in this yard,it balls on a close branch,he puts it in a cardboard box and takes it to our main yard.while he is transfering to a box with frames,it takes off and balls in a tree directly behid our hives ,he gives up.
25 march checked 3 hives at small yard definately came frome the hive we removed queen from,only lifted top 2 boxes to look in brood,down on bees.
25 march went to main yard swarm still balled in tree,my mate climbed tree cut braches away,first attempt swarm hit the ground and took to the air but re balled on same branch,we managed to cut it and lower it,i held it for about 10mins until most re balled then we put it in a box with entrence closed ,a queen excluder,a top box with the lid proped up for the rest of the swarm to go in,they did.
any ideas why this hive swarmed,
did a queen hatch mate and swarm?
did it swarm without a queen?
it behaved at the big yard like it had a queen i can check in a couple days.
i dont want to pull the original apart in case thier might be a virgin.i have been told not to disturbe the hive around the time of hatching and mating.i can fix this hive up later if needed.
im stumped as to what has gone on.
thanks beebloke
my first crack at a post anywhere,so here goes.
on the 8th march we removed a queen and two frames of brood from a strong 3 box hive(8frame,single brood box),made a nuc up and took queen to our nuc yard,we also removed excluder from original hive.
14 march sighted 7 queen cells in original hive
24 march my mate is in stress mode,a big swarm is in flight in this yard,it balls on a close branch,he puts it in a cardboard box and takes it to our main yard.while he is transfering to a box with frames,it takes off and balls in a tree directly behid our hives ,he gives up.
25 march checked 3 hives at small yard definately came frome the hive we removed queen from,only lifted top 2 boxes to look in brood,down on bees.
25 march went to main yard swarm still balled in tree,my mate climbed tree cut braches away,first attempt swarm hit the ground and took to the air but re balled on same branch,we managed to cut it and lower it,i held it for about 10mins until most re balled then we put it in a box with entrence closed ,a queen excluder,a top box with the lid proped up for the rest of the swarm to go in,they did.
any ideas why this hive swarmed,
did a queen hatch mate and swarm?
did it swarm without a queen?
it behaved at the big yard like it had a queen i can check in a couple days.
i dont want to pull the original apart in case thier might be a virgin.i have been told not to disturbe the hive around the time of hatching and mating.i can fix this hive up later if needed.
im stumped as to what has gone on.
thanks beebloke