Back to the original intent of the bees setting up multiple swarming. How does this work? I am going to guess and assume when things go according to bee plans, the bees turn one virgin loose? Allow her make her mating flight, return mated, gather enough bees and swarm, leaving the home hive making a new independent colony somewhere else. Then the nurse bees release one more virgin and the process is repeated until all multiple swarming is accomplished? Thanks for you both for your patience and sharing your knowledge.
Phillip
In large hives that are going to swarm multiple times, the first swarm is with the original queen. This usually happens around the time that the queen cells are capped. Leaving about a week for the virgins to hatch. If the hive doesn't want to swarm again, the virgins hatch and fight it out until only one left. That's when you see the sides of the queen cell cut out. If the hive is going to swarm a second or third time, the first virgin(s) takes flight with the swarm. That swarm finds a new home then the queen goes out on her mating flights. The remaining queens settle thing among themselves after they are done swarming.
In my case this spring, weather delayed the first swarm until the virgins were hatching which created a lot of confusion.
As far as how long they are kept in the cells, I would say a few days to maybe a week at most. I don't see any need for them to keep the locked in longer than that. There is the need for the queen to get mated and start laying fairly quickly.
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