Sorry for the long post. I am new to beekeeping (located central QLD, Australia). We set our hive up in October last year. Inspecting regularly to get used to our bees. Everything was going well. We had 6 frames in our nuc, and by December the final 2 frames had been built out, lots of honey, lots of capped brood lots of visible larva. So mid December we put our super on- everything is in flower locally and humming with bees. We were seeing a few SHB - I read that constantly opening up the hive may prompt them to lay eggs- so we decided to leave them be for a few weeks.
Anyway- open the hive up today- no capped brood, no larva, plenty of bees, a superseding/emergency cell in the middle of one of the frames (only one) .
I spoke with a local beekeeper and sent a few pics and they said it is likely the hive swarmed a few weeks ago- noting the weather here had been perfect for it. I will also note that I could hear lots of buzzing in the gum trees a few weeks ago- to the point that I got binoculars out to see if there was a hive somewhere- which now reflecting may have been ours.
So I have a few questions
Did we not put the super on quickly enough- or did putting the super on somehow contribute to the swarm?
Is it common for a hive to swarm so early on- should we have been more prepared for this in a subtropical location.
Would there still be plenty off bees left from a swarmed hive?
Does this cell look like it’s hatched? It is not chewed out at the very base- still pointy.
Is this possibly a new queen- I didn’t see the head but the bare back, longer abdomen and lighter legs has me hopeful.
Should we remove the super until we have a working queen?
We had on/off torrential rain over the last 2 weeks (around 400mls). If this is a new queen could that have disrupted her mating flight?
Clair, the regulars on here would normally reply to you straight away, my bad for temporarily upsetting them, so i will answer you.
Did we not put the super on quickly enough- or did putting the super on somehow contribute to the swarm? yes
Is it common for a hive to swarm so early on- should we have been more prepared for this in a subtropical location. yes
Would there still be plenty off bees left from a swarmed hive? situational, if less than 5 frames of bees after a swarm, then you will be in trouble as a hobbyist. you also need to make sure the queen is laying worker eggs with a worker brood pattern, well done finding the queen!
Does this cell look like it’s hatched? It is not chewed out at the very base- still pointy. that cell hatched out about a week ago and they are in the process of tearing it down
Is this possibly a new queen- I didn’t see the head but the bare back, longer abdomen and lighter legs has me hopeful. yep, i think she is a prime contender for miss universe for queen bees, she is stunning!
Should we remove the super until we have a working queen? situational, your probably getting close to honey/pollun bound in the brood box. if there are more than 5 frames of bees remaining, then I would say keep it on. if less, remove it and let them build up the population until there is the recommended 80% of bees covering frames.
We had on/off torrential rain over the last 2 weeks (around 400mls). If this is a new queen could that have disrupted her mating flight? Yes! make sure she is laying worker brood, there should be a nice worker brood pattern visible from 2 weeks after a swarm took place
