Hello, I am a new beekeeper with two hives in north central Wisconsin. I have had my two hives of packages for two months now. I have done weekly inspection and to the best of my knowledge in reading and training and advice, everything seemed well. I did not observe any queen cells in either hive. Yesterday while doing yard work I witnessed a swarm. The swarm landed in the top of a big pine about 30 feet away from the hive. About an hour later the vast majority were seen heading back to the hive. All seemed as normal although there is still a tennis ball size cluster in the tree. I assumed that after returning they would once again swarm. They haven't yet, but I was keeping a better eye on things. Today I observed a small cluster of bees at the entrance. After inspecting them I observed they were removing a dead queen, although my queen was not marked, it looked like the package queen. I have not gone into the hive as I was told to wait after a swarm. What just happened, what should I be doing and what can be expected in the future. As for reasons to swarm, I don't have a clue. They have good location, ample room and good ventilation. I have not seen any bearding what so ever and there are only a handful ever fanning at entrance. Thanks so much. ~the nervous newbee~
A couple of opinions. One they swarmed. But if they did there is swarm cells in the hive, and probably quite a few. If the Queen somehow died during her exit, it makes sense that they returned to the hive once they realized the Queen wasn't with them.
Second thought is, if your sure there were no Queen cells then it may have been an abscond. And again without a Queen they returned.
Thanks Psparr...any help is much appreciated. Any thoughts as to my next move? As a new beek, I am sure I missed the queen cells or at least the cups on last inspection. As you said, if they swarmed there would have been such present. And the assumption is that they will swarm again? Anything I can do to prevent that such as a split? Thanks again.
I had a very similar situation with a hive - found a dead queen one day just as I happened to look at the hive. Inspection found a bunch of queen cells. Two weeks later, putting my ear to the hive I could hear queens piping in the hive. A few days later - another dead queen out front, as the queens duked it out. New queen eventually got mated and laying. The next year they made swarm cells which I tried to head off with a split, but they swarmed anyway, but they apparently did a practice run the first day - flew out in a huge cloud, circled the house, landed in a tree out back, and then 20 minutes later all flew back into the hive. At the same exact time the next morning the whole process was repeated, except this time they eventually took off for good from the tree. It was pretty amazing to see it all happen twice, though not so great to lose all the bees!
It could be a supersedure because the queen was failing.
If a number of the queen cells hatch all at once there's going to be a brawl, and if one of the virgins flees the hive she'll take some workers with her. My mentor calls them false swarms. Your description fits what's happening with that hive.