One of our hives recently superceded its weak queen, whose egg laying declined dramatically in the weeks before. The old queen was in the hive during supercedure as we still had brood at varying stages, just not much of it at all. A new queen emerged 10 days ago. Last night, we found a very small (less than tennis ball sized) swarm on the tree near the hive. Is it possible that the old queen was tolerated while the new virgin queen did her mating flights as a safeguard and then simply kicked out rather than killed and that is who this is? While It was getting dark and we couldn't go through the hive to verify it had a queen so we'll do that this evening. I did take the top off and they were super quiet and calm despite the waning daylight. I'm just in a quandry over who this queen is and am hoping its not our new one. Is the old queen always killed?
The young (new) queen has stronger pheromones and thus the colony will stay with the hive. The old queen, if not killed by the young queen, might be able to take flight with a few bees but having week pheromones, will find it hard to retain this small group. I was instructed many years ago not to try to catch the small swarm unless I was willing to find the old queen, kill her, and return the rest to their original hive. -Mike
No, just the opposite. Usually the mother queen is tolerated for a month or 2. The 2 queens lay eggs side by side. This gives the hive a much better chance to recover from a failing queen.
On average, during brood rearing, up to 20 percent of the hives in an apiary will have 2 queens due to supersedures.
Jim
Sometimes putting the old queen into a nuc will keep her going at a reduced capacity - gives you a backup hive with laying queen that will produced some honey but can be requeened quickly or combined with a weak hive if needed
One theory for late swarms is that it's for population control.