Attempts to get an experienced keeper take (at least one) of the swarms failed (no-one was available); so I took some advice and laced a large old plastic pot with lemongrass. Put a flat lid on top, and left on top of a watertank for a few hours. When I came back they were inside!
So now I’ve captured two swarms. One nicely housed inside a brood box, with frames. The other in a temporary box.
Can someone give a second opinion on whether I should:
Combine that swarm with my old hive (making an assumption that it’s queenless, which I don’t really know - it’s been 7 days since they first went to swarm). I’d be worried they might take off again, even if I give them more room.
Or get a Nuc box or another brood box and attempt to sell them (selling is the only other option - I don’t want 3 hives at this early stage).
I know it depends on many things, but would really appreciate your first reaction, based on the info I’ve put on here.
Well, bugger. Both swarms absconded today. And one was nicely housed in a brood box. Back to the drawing board. I think the queens are just about to emerge from the primary hive; so I think I’m just going to let them do their thing and hope for the best.
The brood box may have been too small for the swarm plus you probably only need 2 drops of lemongrass oil to do the trick. What I always do with swarms is give them a frame of brood containing lots of young larvae that needs nursing. Normally that will hold a swarm from absconding, however there are always exceptions to the rule.
Thanks - one swarm had plenty of room in the new brood box, and it was largely empty… but thanks for the tip on putting some brood in. They had built a couple inches of comb (one small piece), and there was no lemongrass on this box - I put them in manually; they stayed for 2 nights.
The 2nd makeshift box, I’m not terribly surprised they went - but I was out buying a new box when they left. I used fresh lemongrass on that one.
Hi Goshen, the scouts found something else more exciting than the boxes you provided, that’s why they took off on both occasions. Actually the only sure way to stop them from absconding is to give them the brood with plenty of young larvae, lemongrass & a box with plenty of room late in the afternoon & take them far away that evening. Say about 6-8 kilometers away. You could close them up that evening & move them in the morning would be easier. By doing that, you’ve taken them away from any likely spots the scouts would have found. On a new location, with everything that we’ve provided being up to par, the scouts will stop looking for a new spot.
Most times that works in reverse because we go & collect swarms, close them up just on dark & bring them home.
I am a first year and mine swarmed. They were prepping to swam on my 2nd week I spection. I did a split but the mentor did not tell me to reduce the number of queen cells. So they swarmed anyway. I caught the Swarm but they left the box and clustered under the screenboard. After 3 days I dumped them back in the box…inspected after 2 weeks and saw no evidence of a queen so I bought one local and requeenef…they have thrived since
Hi Francine, for what it’s worth, I never leave any swarm queen cells with a split. I break every one down so the split will build emergency queen cells. Then I leave every queen cell there so the strongest queen survives. They don’t normally swarm when I do that. It’s really worth waiting that little bit longer so the swarming urge passes.
If I end up with queen cells on more than one frame, sometimes I’ll use one of those frames in another split to speed the process up for that split, as long as that split doesn’t come from a hive with a current urge to swarm.
I don’t normally cut queen cells out of frames to add to a split. Just the whole frame & the more cells on that frame, the better.
Goshenw . I think I have experienced the same thing today. We heard the swarm as it flew past our house. I immediately checked the hives and found 4-5 (newly)capped queen cells and loads of bees - every frame in the brood was covered. I didn’t see the queen ( but i never do). The flow super has no capped honey and 50 % uncapped honey. I thought it may not be my hive that swarmed and for safety sake removed two frames - one with three queen cells. After reading thus post i realise It probably was my swarming hive that flew past my house!
I put the two frames into my second and queenless nuc. Which - btw- i’ve just rescued from a SHB slime out. So now i have capped queen cells in my tiny nuc. Is this a good idea?
It’s October and there are hundreds of trees in flower near me. I should have honey by now…but no harvest in sight! & I am under pressure from the sceptics to bring home the honey.
I don’t know what you are looking at, as you haven’t marked up your photo. At the upper left, I see capped drone brood. In the center, there is uncapped brood. To the right and the lower part of the frame, there is capped worker brood.
If you want to learn what swarm cells look like, I suggest that you download and read this excellent article.
I greatly appreciate your help & the information. Sorry, I guess marking what I was referring to would have helped!! Lol. The purple is what I was questioning
I totally agree with @Dawn_SD , they are drone cells. You can do a google search of swarm cells & see lots of images of swarm cells so you can do a comparison.
Hiya Katie, tell us more about the rest of the frames - and the colony in general. It’s possible that this could be a good time to make a split to pre-empt a swarm, or add a super, or both!
Before last night, I had 6 frames (and a feeder frame) in my 8 frame brood box. When I checked them last night, all of the frames were drawn out so I took the feeder frame out and added 2 blank frames to the box. Two of the 6 frames are what I am not sure about. Is it normal to have several capped drone cells? I spotted the queen so she is still in there. However, I think I may have spotted another queen cell. There was only one that I could see so maybe it wasn’t a queen cell though!
I also found several of the bees clustered at the bottom of the entrance so now I am wondering if it is too hot for them (yesterday was 100 degrees here in west TX). I got my nuc exactly 4 weeks ago today and have definitely noticed that the hive has grown. Do you think I should add the super now, try to split the hive, or just let them draw out the 2 new frames and keep checking on them?
Beautiful, I love your purple hive Katie
The open cell you circled is an emerged drone cell, no worries. The group of bees hanging outside around the entrance is most likely just what is called bearding - normal in hot weather. Your pretty paint color is prob a bit dark for your climate, sorry to say…it would be good to provide some shade and consider using a lighter color when it’s time to repaint.
I notice lots of good, even worker brood and some drone cells being made in the vacant cells where some worker bees have emerged. A healthy colony will have around 20% drones, and this brood is typically concentrated at the outermost edges. Where did you put your two new frames? If there’s a strong nectar flow on right now, you can put them almost anywhere and they’ll be worked quickly. I feel it’s better not to separate the three or so central frames, but others may not find a problem with it when conditions support it.
Your new frames going in should help provide enough new work for your bees to forestall swarming plans for now. I don’t know if splitting or supering will be best as your next step, do you know anyone nearby who has a good handle on the seasonal changes & when the nectar flow slows down?
I used fresh lemongrass on that one.
