Hive swarmed 9/3

A37 · September 03, 2018, 08:40:31 PM

So one of my hives swarmed today, is there going to be enough time for a queen to hatch and do mating flights? Do you think that swarm has any chance of surviving winter, golden rod is in bloom now? Thanks

A37 · September 04, 2018, 01:04:26 AM

After harvesting the honey and taking the supers off, my hives seem to be overpopulated. My strongest hive swarmed... I don't know what to do.

Acebird · September 04, 2018, 08:04:19 AM

Quote from: A37 on September 03, 2018, 08:40:31 PM
Do you think that swarm has any chance of surviving winter, golden rod is in bloom now?

Not likely unless they go back to your hive and you replace the honey.

BeeMaster2 · September 04, 2018, 08:12:12 AM

The original hive should bee okay but you need to check if they plan on swarming again. Put your ear to the hive and listen for queens piping. Keep checking for a week. If no piping, they are probably done swarming. If you hear piping, you will need to take it apart and remove the queens from the cells. Have queen cages ready, at least 10 cages, to put them in. Put one back in the hive. This it to stop the bees from super swarming, swarming over and over again. At this time of year, they will not survive super swarming.
Jim

ed/La. · September 04, 2018, 09:28:13 AM

That looks like a big swarm. How many bees remain?

Van, Arkansas, USA · September 04, 2018, 10:06:17 AM

That is a big swarm. I would think those bees don?t have a chance of surviving winter in Ohio, unless: If the swarm takes over a weak hive, they might make it or if you can entice that swarm into a empty hive body, again they would have a chance. Does not look good at this point.

I will always wonder about those late season swarms. Why, what is the cause?

sc-bee · September 04, 2018, 10:14:01 AM

You extracted the honey and your hive swarmed? You asked is there time for a queen to emerge and mate...was there already queen cells in the hive when the bees left? I am sure you have checked and there are still bees in the parent hive? I ask this because do you have a swarm or an abscond?

I just had an abscond....

A37 · September 04, 2018, 02:29:06 PM

There's bees still in the hive, I'd say more than 3/4 of the hive left. I'm not sure on the queen cells I didn't go down into the broods nest. You can definitely tell what hive swarmed...

Van, Arkansas, USA · September 04, 2018, 02:44:59 PM

A37, what a nice clean orderly set up you have. Beautiful hive stands.

SC, Blesssing, could you elaborate on your hive that absconded. The age, size, treatments, stores, any sign of dwarf wing virus? Thank you, Sir.

I had a hive abscond last year, 1 year old with dwarf wing virus and a mite load. The hive had good stores. The hive left no brood. This was clearly a planned abscond. So I am looking for any info on hive abscond.
Blessings

ed/La. · September 04, 2018, 04:02:00 PM

That is some serious bearding. Have you considered giving one of the boxes from other hive? They don't need it. Maybe a frame of brood with nurse bees to weak hive. And or a switch location of hives to equalise some.

sc-bee · September 04, 2018, 07:41:23 PM

Quote from: Van, Arkansas, USA on September 04, 2018, 02:44:59 PM
SC, Blesssing, could you elaborate on your hive that absconded. The age, size, treatments, stores, any sign of dwarf wing virus? Thank you, Sir.

I had a hive abscond last year, 1 year old with dwarf wing virus and a mite load. The hive had good stores. The hive left no brood. This was clearly a planned abscond. So I am looking for any info on hive abscond.
Blessings

It was an shb abscond. I was able to catch them and re-house them....

Acebird · September 05, 2018, 08:52:14 AM

Quote from: A37 on September 04, 2018, 02:29:06 PM
I'm not sure on the queen cells I didn't go down into the broods nest. You can definitely tell what hive swarmed...

How many supers did you pull off and what was left to overwinter?

A37 · September 05, 2018, 12:08:04 PM

I got one full super from each hive, both hives have the top box full of honey.

Van, Arkansas, USA · September 05, 2018, 05:15:29 PM

I just had a hive swarm, a support hive, not a breeder so I don?t mind the loss of bees. I did not see the swarm, just noticed drop in population so I did a hive check and found queen cells. Now, 9/5 I have a hive with queen cells. This is nuts, queen cells in Sept. The hive was 3 deep 10 frame Lang, which I changed to a 2 deep this AM as after the swarm there was to much space for the remaining fewer bees.

I will monitor for eggs in the coming weeks and will combine if the new queen does not make it OR I have three extra mated queens if I decide to use them. The extra queens are in 5 frame nucs. The swarm has zero chance of surviving winter. Hives are Honey bound which is rare in N Arkansas. There is not a lot of space for the queens to lay, so this support queen took off and swarmed.

I checked my main breeder queen, she has places to lay, also there is eggs, larva, capped brood and no queen cells in my breeder hive.

A37 · September 12, 2018, 11:16:05 PM

Hive Update - It wasn't a swarm it was a abscond. The bees in the hive I'm guessing were foragers after they left. The beehive was slimed out by SHB. This is my third year bee keeping and never saw a beetle until now, I didn't think I had them in my area. Anyways, it's a disgusting mess to clean up.. If your new, don't underestimate the small hive beetle.

ed/La. · September 13, 2018, 02:18:19 AM

If it is hive beetles you would have seen them on earlier inspection. I will guess wax moths. Just a guess

A37 · September 13, 2018, 02:34:37 AM

After the supers were on I didn't go into the hive. I OAVed them hard in the spring, I thought everything would be ok. It's shb, maggots everywhere.

BeeMaster2 · September 13, 2018, 09:48:57 AM

SHB are normally a cleanup crew like wax moths. When the bees are too weak to protect the hive they take over. When a hive swarms, they will try to lay thousands of eggs in the hive. Normally the bees will clean out the eggs and larvae before they get out of control. Bees that have never had to deal with SHB, sometimes do not clean them up and the hive gets slimed and the bees will abscond.
Bee sure to kill all of the larvae in that slimed hive. I put all of the frames in water, I use a trash can, with some bleach. If they get into the ground you will have an even bigger problem when they hatch. If they have already started crawling out of the hive, treat the dirt under the hive to kill them.
Jim

GSF · September 13, 2018, 10:56:36 AM

A37, if all of the frames are ruined pull one or two from the other hive so the queen can get a jump start.

You are absolutely right, it takes little to no time for the wax moths or SHB to mess things up. The wax moths were in my wet supers in about 4 days, webbing and all. Not much but enough to make you growl.