Love a swarm the noise, the smell, trying to figure out where they are going to go then watching them change thier mind and end up back in the FlowHive .
Preperation swarm by my reckoning after inspecting several hours later. Hive just too busy and little room for the queen to utilise.
I had pondered with a double brood but overwintering successfully has me perplexed do a split instead.
Split complete so hopefully a new colony for the Apiary at work in a few weeks time.
I hope doing the split has prevented the colony swarming Dean. Seems there is a lot of swarming happening in the UK with the unusually warm Summer. Your hive is really well advanced in swarming mode so it still is likely to happen. When you see this sort of activity then the bees settle down it is very likely the swarming event will happen in the next day.
Consider preemptive swarm control for next season by doing a split a few weeks earlier so that you keep all the bees working for you.
Cheers
No primary swarm today Pete. I’ve been on holiday today so been keeping an eye on this hive
Can’t remember if the Queen was clipped which could give a bit of a delay in the main swarm.
Queen is definately still in the hive and I shook all frames clear to make sure all the swarm cells were removed.
What’s your thoughts Pete? Do you think I might be in with a shout of preventing the main swarm?
My gut tells me the prep from the hive was due to lack of space especially after only finding 2 swarm cells, fresh eggs, larvae and plenty of capped brood but maybe there is a second queen on the loose?
Colony is too full to have already swarmed so I’m ruling that out.
Best fun I’ve had in weeks this I’m even looking at getting cctv on the hive
I have absolutely no experience with a hive with a clipped queen or what effect it will have on the swarming.
It will be great to read from others with knowledge involving clipped queens.
Cheers Dean
My understanding is it can delay swarming for several days Pete allowing time to potentially work on something to reduce the likely hood.
I’m not convinced as when bees plan to swarm they normally do.
Weather in the UK has been hot but very rainy and extremely windy.
My bees are on lockdown due to the weather since Sundays swarm activity so I’m hoping with the new space, Queen still inside and swarm cells removed I might get away with it .
I’ve not done many splits personally as I’m okay with my bees swarming if healthy so looking forward to seeing how the nuc gets on.
Having a clipped queen will not delay the initial swarm, but what happens is that the queen will be unable to fly with the swarm and will drop to the ground, usually close to the hive. Realising that the queen is not with them, the swarm will return to the hive.
The outcome is that you might have lost the queen but you have retained the bees.
If this happens check the ground near the hive and if youre lucky you might find the queen and a small ball of bees nearby.
You will then have to take care of your hive as you most likely have many capped queen cells there about to emerge in the next week or so…
Yeah pretty much all of what you’ve mentioned is what’s been happening.
My earlier posts detail the ons and outs.
The nuc with the Queen cells seems to be okay but it’ll be another week before I see how it’s doing inside.
The main hive the weather has been pants in the UK so the bees haven’t been out much which I’m hoping is good and the new space created with the foundationless frames helps prevent the bees from leaving.
Original queen is still there which is strange to find with capped swarm cells that’s why I was thinking the queen is possibly clipped.
I’ll hopefully get into the hive over the weekend and if there is new charged queen cells I’ll just let nature take its course.
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