Hi everyone,
I need some more advice :) My hive recently swarmed on me :( Right after I harvested a super of honey. There were no swarm cells (that I could find any ways). I have a bunch of queen cups (~10) that had some good size larva in them (couldn't really see well the first time I was in there, ordered a magnifying glass to prevent this in the future); there are various ages though based on sizes. I then opened the hive up again on Saturday and saw that the queen cups have been sealed up... I also took a frame of honey out of this hive (they have plenty of honey, a little low on pollen I think though) and gave them a frame of capped brood and pollen from my stronger hive, since they are low on brood in particular. I have been doing a little reading and I am wondering what is the best thing to do with the queen cups, seems like a lot of differing opinions, i.e. the usual in the bee world I find. Should I leave all the queen cups (seems more natural to me to let the bees do their things)? Or do I kill some of the queen cups and just leave a few, saw this when doing some research on-line (would I potentially weed out a better queen, seems anti-natural selection)? Would love to hear what has worked for others in the past :)
The bees are also not doing much of anything up in their super of honey which is pretty full (just waiting to be capped). Should I be concerned about this? Though lots of activity down in the hive body... Worries me as I have some small hive beetles in there, though I have traps set.
I also reduced the entrance to the hive to help the guard bees out a bit... I've noticed more small hive beetles in this hive and some fire ants (not a lot, but a few that weren't there when the hive was strong). Also doing some powdered sugar drops on both my hives right now to try and get my mite numbers lower going into winter. This hive had 15 mites after a powdering, then I did a sticky trap a few days later and the mite drop count was right around 15 mites after 48 hours, going to re-powder here in a couple days again...
Any advice would be very much appreciated
Hope everyone had a nice weekend
Allison
Quote from: allisono on August 29, 2011, 09:28:59 PM
I am wondering what is the best thing to do with the queen cups, seems like a lot of differing opinions, i.e. the usual in the bee world I find. Should I leave all the queen cups (seems more natural to me to let the bees do their things)? Or do I kill some of the queen cups and just leave a few,
We just leave the queen cells alone. The only reason to remove a queen cell is if you need it in another hive to make a new queen. The only reason to destroy a queen cell is if you don't like the genetics of the hive and want to replace it with another queen cell or queen from another hive.
If I were you, what I would be concerned about is why the hive swarmed in the first place. Was it too crowded? Was the broodnest backfilled with no place for the queen to lay? If you keep the brood nest open, you can reduce the number of swarms.
another question that needs to be asked is there still drones in the hive or capped drone cells? If not you are probably going to have to requeen maybe someone closer can provide you with more information about wheather the drones in your area have been kicked out or not.
Good point frameshift, I have also been evaluating this ;) Both hives still had a good deal of brood, though there was some open space for the queen to still lay. The hive that swarmed WAS my stronger hive... Only thing I can figure is that there wasn't enough space. I did have the hive body, and 2 supers (one of which was harvested right around when the swarm took place, the other super still had some empty frames and I was considering putting on another super, maybe I should have in hindsight?). I recently gave my other hive an extra super to free up some space as there is a ton of bees in there! I'm also taking some brood from this hive to give to the now weaker hive... The now stronger hive seems to be slowing down though as far as brood goes... Definitely learning a lot my first year ;) Hoping next year I won't make as many mistakes, lol...
Quote from: allisono on August 29, 2011, 10:44:18 PM
I recently gave my other hive an extra super to free up some space as there is a ton of bees in there!
Just adding supers is fine for making more room for honey storage, but it may not stop overcrowding of the brood nest. You might try pulling out some frames from the brood nest and placing some empty frames in their place. Move the replaced frames up into the new box. That will make the bees feel like they are not crowded.
FRAMEshift is absolutely correct. Adding supers does nothing to deter a swarm. You have to open up the brood boxes by adding empty frames, preferably drawn comb. Don't cut any of the queen cells, let the bees decide who they want for a queen.
Quote from: hankdog1 on August 29, 2011, 10:42:56 PM
another question that needs to be asked is there still drones in the hive or capped drone cells? If not you are probably going to have to requeen maybe someone closer can provide you with more information about wheather the drones in your area have been kicked out or not.
We still have drones here in North FL.
Jim