# My Hive Swarmed, Now What
**URL:** https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/my-hive-swarmed-now-what/6842
**Category:** Beekeeping - Basics
**Created:** [May 9, 2016, 1:28am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/my-hive-swarmed-now-what/6842 "2016-05-09T01:28:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Chet\_Calhoun](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Chet_Calhoun)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2016, 1:28am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/my-hive-swarmed-now-what/6842/1 "2016-05-09T01:28:27Z")
I had an experienced beekeeper inspect my hive that was started in late March and his verdict was that I have had a swarm based on queen cell that had hatched. His advise was to just wait a week or more before checking to see if a new queen was present and laying. I was surprised he did not suggest buying another queen to speed up things but I think his concern was that I would not know if a new queen had been provided by the brood itself. I’m just so dissapointed as I really thought I was doing better than that during my inspections which I have done faithfully every 7 days.
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### Author:  [@JeffH](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/JeffH)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2016, 2:25am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/my-hive-swarmed-now-what/6842/2 "2016-05-09T02:25:34Z")
Hi Chet, I’d offer the same advice. Did you see a dramatic drop in population? Like a 50% drop? because if you didn’t see that, maybe the queen cell was an emergency queen cell. You may have inadvertently killed the queen during an inspection. Keep an eye on it, it might take a couple of weeks before you see any eggs or larvae. It takes a while for a new queen to lay on every brood frame. If you don’t see eggs on the first frame you inspect, there could be eggs on another frame.
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### Author:  [@Dee](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Dee)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2016, 11:45am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/my-hive-swarmed-now-what/6842/3 "2016-05-09T11:45:27Z")
I agree
You would have had to find your virgin queen to despatch her.
How many queen cells were there?
Patience.
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### Author:  [@Michael\_Bush](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Michael_Bush)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2016, 12:20pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/my-hive-swarmed-now-what/6842/4 "2016-05-09T12:20:18Z")
> [@Chet\_Calhoun](#):
>
> I was surprised he did not suggest buying another queen to speed up things but I think his concern was that I would not know if a new queen had been provided by the brood itself. I’m just so dissapointed as I really thought I was doing better than that during my inspections which I have done faithfully every 7 days.
Odds are there is a virgin queen loose in there and if you bought a queen it would be a waste of money and a waste of a queen as the bees will kill your bought queen and keep their own virgin queen. The timing, however, is another issue.
> **[Beekeeping Mathematics, Bee Math, Michael Bush](https://bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm)**
>
> Beekeeping Mathematics, Bee Math, Michael Bush. A discussion of the meaning and usefulness of knowing the life cycle of the bee. What you can discern when you know how many days it is from one stage to the next.
From the time the hive swarmed until you will probably see a laying queen is likely to be two to four weeks. The old queen usually leaves just after the first queen cell is capped, which means 8 days later you will have a virgin queen. Two weeks fater that she is likely to be laying. So most likely it will be three weeks.
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### Author:  [@Chet\_Calhoun](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Chet_Calhoun)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2016, 5:31pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/my-hive-swarmed-now-what/6842/5 "2016-05-09T17:31:23Z")
I tried to "like’ this response Sir as I found it very helpful, but the forum gave me an error msg that I was not permitted to view source? when clicking the like button
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### Author:  [@Dawn\_SD](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Dawn_SD)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/my-hive-swarmed-now-what/6842/6 "2016-05-09T18:37:14Z")
> [@Chet\_Calhoun](#):
>
> I tried to "like’ this response Sir as I found it very helpful
I liked it on your behalf, Mr Hacker Chet! 😄
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### Author:  [@sara](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/sara)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2016, 12:12am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/my-hive-swarmed-now-what/6842/7 "2016-05-10T00:12:44Z")
You “liked” it Chet ; -)