My hives swarmed three times this week!

[Cindy]

I am a new beekeeper.
I got 2 packages in the spring and one was very quiet and got up late every day and seemed to be doing ok, but didn't seem to be doing very much. Yet, every time I would check them the combs would be full of
nectar or pollen or honey and I would add a box, they have 5 boxes now.
One morning I found an almost dead queen outside the hive. Found only one queen cell and left them alone. I went to check things two weeks later and after just taking off the lid I heard a queen loudly piping.
Closed things back up to not disturb the new queen.


The other hive has been very busy and active, up buzzing around bright and early every morning. They started bearding and completely covering the box, front and back, even at night and even during rain and wind storms. It has been hot and humid here in Ohio, understandable. But every time I even get near, their noise level increases to a very loud aggressive hum and they chase me away. They are VERY mean every time I even get close, they attack. They even sting the smoker and where my hand holds it they grab
viciously on in dozens. They attack the water bottle I use and have stung right through my thickest jeans repeatedly. During one of these attack mode episodes I took the super with ten frames of capped honey and gave them a new deep with undrawn comb.
I brought it to one brood box and one deep with empty frames, hoping to get them busy building comb and filling it up. Two weeks pass with them daily growling and dive bombing me when I am even 10 feet away. They are still bearding constantly.

I finally put my full bee suit on with tape around the ankles and went to check it out. I smoked them well and, in spite of being dive bombed and listening to their sound increase to a frenzy,
I raised the lid to find no drawn comb in the new super! Two weeks have passed!
They are too busy hanging out on the outside of the hive to do anything inside?

The very next day I see a swarm coagulating in my bee area, I'm thinking its the mean hive finally swarming and maybe I can get control over a new queen with less bees.
they move to a mulberry tree on the border of my property. As I get to the bee area I find its the quiet sleepy hive swarming, not the mean hive, darn!

Since then the quiet hive swarmed again, three days ago! They arel up too high in a tree to reach. I hope they don't starve with a queen that gives them no direction!

The very next day the mean hive finally swarmed for about 30 minutes and then came back to their hive to cover the exterior completely again. During this time I heard a loud
and frantic piping and noticed afterwards that the quiet hive is much busier than before. It swarmed twice, how can it be busier?

Do you think the mean hive killed that new queen in the quiet hive? Maybe that is what the frantic piping was.

I ordered some queen pheromone because someone told me that might help the mean hive calm down, that they sound queen less. But would they swarm if they are queen less?

I need to suit up completely and find the mean queen, if they have one, and do the hive tool test on her. In the mean time

What can I do to help the quiet swarm that has been high in the tree for three days?
It is not reachable where it is without a cherry picker, which, if I found someone to help, I can't get into my yard without taking down the fence.
Someone asked me if I had a shot gun. Geez!
Things have been CRAZY !

 

[van from Arkansas]

Me. Cindy: sounds like you have a lot going on.

Note, queen pheromone: if you queen pheromone is oleic acid that will not help, that is a drone attraction pheromone or mating pheromone.

The hive tool on the mean queen if justified.  Very good idea,Ms. Cindy.

Bees will not build wax frames if they are about to swarm.  Making wax is very energy requiring of bees so the bees will save energy for the swarm.  It takes about 5-6 molecules of honey to make a single molecule of wax, thus very energy requiring.

In the future if you suspect swarming, find swarm cells, remove the queen and put her in a new box with her brood and food.  You can exclude the entrance if needed.

Hope this helps, enjoy your honey, and dispose of that awful mean bee producing queen.
Blessings
Van

[Donovan J]

Make sure there aren't anymore queens or queen cells left over so there is just one queen or cell. They may swarm multiple times until the hive is empty.

[Acebird]

Always good to find out why a hive is aggressive.  Was the inactive hive robbing the active (aggressive hive)?

[Cindy]

I didn't observe much robbing at all before the swarmings. I provided vittles though.
It will be interesting to see what happens on Bee TV today. That's what I call my
garden area where I have my hives, its so interesting to watch them,
its become a daily activity to look forward to. Because of that I got to
experience all three swarms from the get go.