Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => REQUEENING & RAISING NEW QUEENS => Topic started by: dirtyanklebeekeeper on June 23, 2009, 10:04:50 pm

Title: Help Please!!!!
Post by: dirtyanklebeekeeper on June 23, 2009, 10:04:50 pm

Hello all,
I came home this evening to find a swarm of honey bees on the grond in front of our hive stand. We got a Nuc box that we had made and sat it on the ground right in front of the swarm within second the bees started to march in. After a few minutes the progress stopped so I coaxed them with some smoke as the rest started to enter the box We saw the Queen when she got to the entrance a few of the bees jumped on her and pushed her off the front of the box and would not aloow her to enter. We picked her up and put her in through the top. Has anyone seen this before or can anyone tell me what that is about?

Damien

Title: Re: Help Please!!!!
Post by: JP on June 23, 2009, 10:20:34 pm

I wonder if perhaps this queen was superseded and pushed out of the hive. I would cage her and set her up in the nuc with those other bees.


...JP

Title: Re: Help Please!!!!
Post by: dirtyanklebeekeeper on June 23, 2009, 10:41:10 pm

well she is in the nuc now and we put an excluder over the entrance is that good enough or should we cage her and reintroduce her?

Title: Re: Help Please!!!!
Post by: JP on June 24, 2009, 01:40:11 am

If you saw no signs of them trying to ball and sting her, you may be just fine with your current set up.

For curiosity sake, you may want to go in and check that hive, I'd be looking for queen cells and a new queen.


...JP

Title: Re: Help Please!!!!
Post by: dirtyanklebeekeeper on June 25, 2009, 11:18:04 am

Well it seems that the bees in the NUC have accepted the queen afer her torment the other evening. But I had a second swarm yesterday retrieved it and the was a queen with it too. We decided to check all our boxes and found them to each have a queen. I found no queen cells though. I am perplexed. Is it normal to see swarms this late?

Damien

Title: Re: Help Please!!!!
Post by: JP on June 25, 2009, 11:48:33 am

As long as temps are up, there's always a possibility of swarming. They need to be checked and managed all the way up until they decide to go into winter mode.


...JP

Title: Re: Help Please!!!!
Post by: dirtyanklebeekeeper on June 25, 2009, 05:37:05 pm

Well I guess if the keep swarming I'll have more colonies for next year. lol I hope the swarming to be finihed. Like I said earlier we did not see any indication of swarm cell when we check last night so maybe they will settle down.

Damien

Title: Re: Help Please!!!!
Post by: Cindi on July 25, 2009, 10:51:56 am

Damien, that is good, sounds like things worked out good for you.  Excellent. Have a wonderful day, love and live with great health.  Cindi