They swarmed. Now what?

[gmolzahn]

I'm a new beekeeper in my second season. My single hive thrived last year and wintered well and built up quickly this spring. When I got home from work yesterday I saw a swarm on my garage roof. I have to extra woodenware so that swarm is lost to me, but I don't know what to do about the hive. There are several queen cells present. Should I let them raise a new queen, or should I order one of known genetics and introduce her? Will a new queen be accepted into a hive that has swarmed and has queen cells present?

I'd appreciated any advice.

Thanks!

[Bill W.]

No woodenware is no reason to give up a swarm.  Are they still there?  If so, you can catch them and introduce them to a container of some sort (for example, a garbage can, a box with a tarp over it, etc.)  You won't be able to manage them, but you can get another hive later and transfer them.  If you can just get them into a cardboard box, you can take a little time to find them a temporary home.  Then, you have some backup bees.

As far as the remaining hive goes, it really depends on what style of management you want to employ.  Some people use only pure-bred queens and replace them every year and would never consider allowing the bees to raise their own queen.  Some people let the bees manage the whole process, allowing nature to take its course.  Both camps have good reasons for their choices.

The good news for you is that both methods seem to work just fine.  I'd let the bees choose their new queen from the swarm cells.

ETA: If you were going to add a new queen, you would want to remove the swarm cells.

[Vibe]

Why would you think that you would need a new queen? I thought healthy hives tended to split in the spring naturally. New queens hatch and take followers, another remains behind. Too many swarms can leave a hive depleated of workers, but if all the queens left, wouldn't all the workers tend to leave with them and abandon the hive? I haven't been in this long either, but that's the way I was thinking that this worked.

[gwalker314]

I am a new beekeeper myself and I am in my 1st season. I also had a single hive that swarmed the 1st of May. It was suggested to me by a local beekeeper to check the hive and see how many frames had queen cells. I found 2 frames in the bottom deep brood box with unhatched queen cells. I removed 1 of the frames including the bees on it and transfered to a new deep box. I put the frame in the center of the new box and added two blank boards on each side to close off the large area. I let the original hive hatch a queen from the frame of queen cells they had and the new hive also hatched a queen who is laying very well so far and the bees are gentle and bringing in lots of nectar & pollen.
I was not able to capture my swarm either... It was about 40' up a tree.
I am happy with letting the bees do what they do and now have 2 hives and learning allot from watching them work things out themselves.

Good Luck,

GW

[asprince]

Bill W., That was an excellent answer to GW's questions.  I agree with you, Let them raise their own queen.

gmolzahn, your solution to your hive swarm was "text book". Excellent.


My two cents worth,

Steve 

[gmolzahn]

Thanks much, guys. Your replies helped a lot.