Hi JeffH,
Ya they are at the top of a 30ft tree, would you have an idea as why they would have swarmed? Also does that mean my queen left the hive.
I have to admit it was pretty cool seeing them swarming. Do you think I should take the second shallow brood box off and just put my flow super on?
Thanks again.
Sending it through my email hopefully itâll upload.
Michael Smart,
âI am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.â (John 8:12)
(Attachment Video.mov is missing)
Hi Mike, thanks for passing that on. Sometimes we walk in darkness for decades, then one day the penny drops, then we can view life, plus our surroundings, as well as the natural would with a clearer vision.
Sorry, that is my email signature I tried to upload the video but it wonât upload.
Any idea as to why they would have swarmed? Also does that mean my queen left the hive.
The forum doesnât accept videos directly, just jpg and png files. There is a way around it though. Upload your video to youtube, make sure that you set it as public viewing, then post the âShareâ link here
Yes, it does. The old queen leaves with the swarm
Thanks for the advice on uploading the video should I go in my house to see if I have a new queen.
Do they make a new queen first then swam.
Hi Dawn_SD,
Letâs see if this works.
Perfect, well done with the video
They usually make a bunch of queen cells, and they wonât swarm until the queen cells have contents (egg, royal jelly, larva etc). Then the swarm leaves and a (no longer) virgin queen (daughter of the departed queen) inherits the hive if she returns from her mating flights. She then has to kill off all of the other queen cells, to destroy any future competition. If doesnât do that, you will see âcastâ swarms happening after the first swarm. They are much smaller, and may go with a virgin queen. Complicated, isnât it? 
Yes it is, but you and a your others have helped me since the beginning and continue to do so.
Thank you.
Should I open the hive today and see if there is a Queen since they just swarmed? It was pretty cool watching them swarm until I realized half of my bees just left.
This is a large document, but it has wonderful advice. The most relevant part for you right now is probably page 15 onwards. Donât just look for a queen, look for queen cells. The article will tell you what to do if you find them:
Hi Mike, sorry, I missed this message & questions. The link from my inbox took me straight to the one with the Bible verse.
They swarm because thatâs how they reproduce & are optimistic about having enough resources afield to be able to rebuild in time for winter. Yes, the old queen left with the swarm.
Youâll have to decide whether to take the shallow away or put the Flow super on, based on the strength of the remaining population. Bare in mind that a caste swarm is always possible.
Thank you, the information is very helpful, I am confused, while I believe my bees swarmed if you saw the video you would agree I think. When I went into the hive I did see a couple of caped queen sells a couple of cups with larvae in them, The larvae was pretty big.
But yesterday when all of these bees swarmed there was thousands of them today this afternoon I only see maybe five bees buzzing around the top of the tree but then again the tree is too high for me to get to see.
When we went through our hive this afternoon the hive was loaded with bees and the numbers do not look reduced in fact it looks like more bees than two weeks ago when we started to go through the hive but had to stop because when we pulled out a frame it seemed some of the brood was in between both boxes and we end up ripping the brood I think that is what it is called this happen again today so I stopped going through the hive because I didnât want to damage any more brood, so I am not sure what is going on. See pictures below.
If I can jump in Mike. If those frames are as you removed them, that population looks typical of a colony that has recently swarmed. Normally just prior to swarming, there will be 3 layers of bees on each brood frame, making it difficult to even see queen cells.
It is amazing how quickly a colony can build in a mere 2 weeks. Itâs all relative to how much worker brood is in a colony. Just say a queen is laying 2k eggs a day, that = 28k in 2 weeks, which is half a reasonable sized colony. We still need to factor in bee mortality, which is way less than the birth rate during the peak season.
Donât mind at all. All of the information I can get is very helpful. So how long should I wait until I go back into the hive? And if we are full but donât see the queen should I put the flow super on?
You should decide what to do with the queen cells, whether to take a risk of a caste swarm, or break every one down except for the best looking one. After that wait for about 20 days before going back in to look for new sealed worker brood.
Treat the honey super as you would when a colony is building from scratch. I would leave it off until a viable queen is identified. Not so much a queen sighting, but proof that sheâs there.
Thanks JeffH, I feel bad after they worked so hard. Can I spit the hive never done that before or will the numbers be to small? Also how do I know which queen cell to keep wonât the first born take care of getting rid of the other queen cells?
Sorry for all the questions.
Hi Mike, you can split a hive down down to 1.5 frames of bees in each split, if you want to, during the spring buildup.
Youâre correct that the first queen takes care of killing the rest, however not in every case. With a caste swarm, half the bees take off with the first queen to emerge, leaving the second queen to emerge to have the privilege of killing the remaining queens. On the very odd occasion, a second caste swarm can issue, leaving a very depleted colony.
Thanks JeffH and Dawn_SD
Since the shallow frames have a good pattern of brood on them and honey I am just going to leave it. But I will go in and get rid of the queen cells except for one unless I see the new queen. I still have trouble seeing the very early stage of the larvae in the cell.
