ok so I have been pulling swarm cells for the past couple weeks every 3 days. I found one two days ago that was capped and they had started back filling the brood nest with nectar. I moved that frame and two other frames to a nuc. I pulled all other swarm cells and hoped that would stop them from swarming. Today I saw them begin to swarm. I prepared a 5 over 5 nuc with a frame of brood comb and some LGO. I stood infront of the hive and saw the queen crawl out and begin to fly, I grabbed her out of the air and clipped her wing and caged her and returned her to her hive in the cage. what is my best course of action now?
what to do with swarm?
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
presuming the swarm came back or did not leave with out the queen, they will try to leave when a virgin emerges. once they "start" the swarm impulse it is difficult to stop.As I do not wish to prescribe ,I will state what I would do. So if the queen is still caged, I would move the hive away with the boxes of brood and stores. Then put 4 drawn combs in a box of foundation, center the comb. leave this and the cadged queen in the old location , somewhat a fly back split. let her out in 48hours , I would hope there is at least 2 queen cells, I would then split them in 1/2 with a queen cell in each. place on new locations. the field bees would go back to the old location.
goals
1) separate the field bees and Queen from the brood and nurse bees. when 2 of the 4 are missing they are less likely to swarm.
2) make thirds, then if 1 of the thirds still swarm you are out 1/6 of your bees instead of 1/2
tuning:
3)leave 1 frame of stores with the queen, in case of inclement weather.
4)Can do more than 2 splits, I one time split 30 frames 6 ways. it is possible 1 of the new queen does not mate so recombining may need to happen
5) if you are worried she may still leave/abscond, leave 1 frame of open brood with nurse bees at the old location as an anchor, you did clip so this should help.
good luck, nice catch you bought some time, maybe 4 days tops... she normally leaves when capped Q cells, they cap at 8 days, hatch at 16. You are likely somewhere in the 9-13 day point of the Virgin hatching.
6) if you absolutely do not want increase keep the best queen and recombine after swarm season. Swarm Q cells are my favorite kind so treat this as a opportunity.
7)if you have a dud hive needing re queen, pinch it and give one of the sealed Q cells, frame and all.
GG
Joined
·
916 Posts
Good job on catching the queen, that is amazing! I keep seeing a common theme going on this spring both here and on other social media outlets of trying to keep the hive together after swarm cells with larva are found. Take GG's advice above, it is very good.
1. Move the original hive (or turn it around so the entrance faces 180 degrees from the original location).
2. Place a bottom board, a box with ONE frame of open brood (triple check to make sure there are no queen cells on it) and fill the rest with empty (undrawn) frames. This box will take original hive location and direction.
3. Release the queen into the box you just setup in step #2.
What happens ?
1. All the nurse bees and brood will in the original hive that is now MOVED OR TURNED AROUND. They will make their own queen, assuming you left atleast ONE queen cells or some very young larvae. DO NOT destroy queen cells. They need something to keep going. This may even make some honey
2. All the field bees (out in the field and any that exit the old hive) come back to original entrance where the new box with queen is placed. They will NOT swarm as there are no queen cells, no nurse bees and very little congestion. You can give them 1:1 sugar syrup IF there is no nectar coming in. The bees will build comb and queen will start laying.
Other Options:
1. If you have Snelgrove Board, there are other options.
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
