Hi FLOW FORUM
Help me with a new issue.
Two days back and for the last 3 days i have been experiencing swaring in my hive (3 in a single day)
But the issue is that ,when i box one ,the other bees of 2nd swarm merge in it and then the boxed swarm comes out of the hive and join them ( leaving their own queen behind in the hive,i have queen gate fixed at entrance).
All this happened 3 times ,
Today i collected three queens and caged them ,and i am planning to dispose them, to my surprise most of them returned to the parent hive.
Can you plz help me out with the issue.
I literally boxed three swarms,but they leave the hive, leaving behind drones and queen(as they cannot leave due to queen gate at entrance).
N yeah my hive is in symbiosis with pseudoscorpions , in countable numbers.
Perhaps making a split will help. Bees bent on swarming are going to find a way to do it in my experience.
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So to be clear, the swarms are leaving but without a queen as there is a queen includer on the hive they are leaving?
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I allowed the queen to mate,which i guess is mated keeping in view the size of the queen.
But why should a boxed swarm leave behind a mated queen.
Today it happened again,this time i introduced the catched queen in the swarm(i could not spot any drone in it ,so i am sure queen must not be with them). I have boxed them and literally and techniqually it can be taken as a split.
But one thing wonders me ,WHY ONLY HALF OF THEM ENTERED IN THE BOX WHILE ABOUT HALF REMAINED ON THE FRONT OF HIVE(The hive in which i let the swarm to get in,after i released the caged queen ).
Now i have divided this swarm into two the one which entered the box,and another i removed which didnot enter and remained stuck at the front of hive.
Is it the right way ???
If the colony does not like it’s new home it will leave before investing precious energy. They left the queen behind because of the includer…
Adding a frame of brood to the new hive will help keep them there as will using an old, previously used box.
Drones do not travel with swarms, queen or not.
Does the parent hive have an includer?
Yes the parent hive has queen includer.
What I would do is do a split of the hive with eggs or very young brood in both of the brood boxes so it won’t matter which has the queen in it. the swarm returned to the hive because they didn’t have a queen with them. It is very likely the hive swarmed because it is overcrowded. So make sure the hive you have has eggs as well as in the new brood box. I would also make both of the brood boxes equal in stores and add new frames of foundation on the outter positions to fill the brood box. and move the existing brood box a couple of metres away and the new brood box in exactly the same position as the existine brood box and facing in the same direction. Hope that explains what to do. Regards
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When i examined yesterday,i found four swarm cells and queens ready to emerge(they emerged 10 min after i cleaved them out).these four swarm cells are in addittions to three queens which i caged a couple of days back.
That means there has been atleast 6 swarm cells (which hatched) in it. Why this amount of queen cells.
Besides they have not drawn any new comb, 3 frames are yet to be drawn,
There is also a gud amount of emerging brood.
But yesterday after exam i could not spot any eggs .
What should i do.
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As I said in my reply just 2 above this one, do splits, even split the hive into 3 new colonies. If you don’t do that you will have lots of lost swarms and so loss honey production. Not to mention it is a part of good hive management, sadly you need to improve in your hive management to be a good bee keeper. Cheers
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