So they swarmed. (Melbourne)

[damienpryan]

After they swarmed I checked the hive.
It was 2 10 frame boxes jammed with honey.
No brood. No sign of queen and more queen capped queen cells than I've ever seen before!
I took the honey off and removed all but 3 of the queen cells.
(Hope this is right).

Last time I leave them with plenty honey for winter!

Seems like a honey flow is on in Melbourne at the moment.

Cheers

Damien

[Lancej]

Hi Damien, not surprised your hive swarmed.
I already have supers on and would have had weeks ago if my order turned up on time.
By the time I did swarm control it was a bit late, my first swarm for the year going by the weight of the box will be getting another box this week.
I removed frames, did splits and they still swarmed, the way the bees are going this year I will need to place another order for more gear.
Lance

[LenR]

Hi
I got my first hive last year, i had 2 brood boxes and put a honey super on about a month ago with a queen excluder.
And my hive still swarmed, I have since removed the queen excluder and moved a few frames around to see how it goes.

The swarm happened about 2 weeks ago with about the first decent day we have had since all the rain, I have only entered the hive once since , will let them be for a another week, there where quite a lot of queen cells in there and I moved them into the top box, not sure if that is the done thing, we will see.
I do have a look at the hive most days from the outside and bees seem happy enough and doing what they do.

Len

[Anybrew2]

My Bee's have started to Swarm too, they have heaps of room and i even checker boarded the brood box but they do what they like. It was a warm day yesterday and two of them swarmed I caught one the other is way to high. 

[rawfind]

My Bee's have started to Swarm too, they have heaps of room and i even checker boarded the brood box but they do what they like. It was a warm day yesterday and two of them swarmed I caught one the other is way to high.

I had the same problem one year, i decided to hit them with a water jet, they just tightened up and the water ran off! ended up
throwing a stick at them  it knocked them loose and they resettled lower down where i was able to get them sounds a bit unconventional but it worked didn't see any harm to the bees

[LenR]

Well how are you all going with your hives swarming?.

It will be 3 weeks this Friday since I seen mine swarm, I did also see some bees that looked like a cast swarm and tried to follow them on Saturday but lost them, maybe maiden queen flight but I don't know.
Anyway I checked hive again today and still no brood, no eggs, nothing but honey and I can't see a queen no matter how hard I look.
as I only have one hive it is hard to know what to do, wait it out or start to get anxious ( too late ).

Len

[Andersonhoney]

Before a queen starts to lay, the bees will clear out cells where she is to start laying. That is what will become the brood area.  If a hive is queenless the bees will just  keep packing pollen in.
I try not to disturb the hive too much while waiting for a virgin queen. So if they are queenless on inspection as you lift the lid you will notice the bees behavior to be different.  It's hard to explain, but they will seem fairly ruffled, not aggressive as such just a little crazy.
Any way, there are 2 things that I look for rather than up setting the hive too much.
So if you have a young queen that hasn't started to lay yet look for a clean cleared brood area.
Good luck.

[LenR]

Hi Andersonhoney, thanks for you reply
I did notice that one of the frames in the bottom box in the middle looked like it had been cleaned out and the bees just had a bit of capped honey in one corner.
I can't remember if it had honey in it last time I looked or not but it looked clean.
As for the bees, they seem to be the same as they always have.

I will wait another week and have another look in.



Len

[Anybrew2]

My Bee's have stopped swarming ATM they threw 6 swarms and I caught 5. 4 are going really well and drawn out approximately 5 frames each in roughly three weeks.
One is definitely Queens less and they are totally unorganized and their number have dropped to less than 2 frames. The majority of the swarm left leaving these guys behind. I will dump them out near my other hives in a day or two.
 

[Kona Bob]

I had a good hive with stacks of bees that I split a few weeks ago. I took queen with eggs larva and bees and moved her in to a new box a few feet away. That hive with original queen is powering. The hive I took them from swarmed a bit over 2 weeks after I had done the split. So I guess just after the new queen hatched. There were a few queen cells in the hive that swarmed. Would a new queen have swarmed and left another queen behind. I Ve since checked the hive they swarmed from about a week after they swarmed but haven't found a queen or larva. I caught the swarm that left and they have a queen but no larva yet after 1 week. Not sure about eggs as my eyes don't work no good these days. They hive the swarm left from is still very busy, lots of honey, pollen and clean comb but no babies yet. I will have another look this weekend.
So do you reckon I should get a caged queen if still nothing this weekend

[Lancej]

I split a hive in March this year, the weaker split was given the new queen.  It swarmed less than a month ago, the swarm were given empty comb as that was all I had. Checked it last week and found 8 of the 10 frames had eggs and brood with a bit of honey around each frame. Put another box on top, out of all the hives I have this one is just booming, even another queen I got at the same time pales in comparison to this queen. I have a feeling that swarming will be an issue with this queen.

[Anybrew2]

Kona Bob, I'm no expert but I think I would give them both another a couple of weeks and then have a look.
Sometimes they take and bit to start laying. I had a Hive I swore was Queensless and I ignored it. I check probably 6 weeks later and found it queen right. Sometimes an unmated Queen is darn hard to spot.

[Andersonhoney]

Kuna Bob give it a frame of brood from one of the other hives. It could do with the extra work force as it has now had several weeks without new bees coming through. If it is queenless it will raise another of the frame you give it.

[Kona Bob]

Thanks Anderson Honey. Legend. why didnt i think of that