Swarm Management

rober · May 10, 2013, 12:58:52 PM

i hived a swarm last saturday, found the queen & marked her. went thru the hive just now & could not find the queen!? ther's no brood yet ( yes i know it's probably too soon ) but the girls are making queen cells. they can't make a queen without eggs so what are they up to? could there be some eggs that i missed? do i need to find a frame with eggs in amother hive?

Michael Bush · May 10, 2013, 01:07:35 PM

There may have been multiple queens and now some have been dispatched...

BeeMaster2 · May 10, 2013, 01:13:17 PM

Sounds like you have a secondary swarm. The Primary swarm will have the old queen, the secondaries will have virgin queens. If 2 or more go out with a swarm they do not fight until they are in the new hive. Then when it is settled, the new queen will go out on her matting flights.
What time of day were you in the hive?
There is a good chance that she is just hiding from you. Did you use smoke and how much. If I am looking for a Queen, I will put a little at the door and a little on top so as to not to have her hiding. Even in nucs there are a lot of timesthat I cannot find the queen.
Jim

rober · May 10, 2013, 01:21:01 PM

i was in the hive around 10:30. there was a queen excluder between the hive & the bottom board. could a virgin queen fit thru an excluder? i took the excluder off while i was in there this morning. went thru the 2nd swarm as well & did not find the queen. both homeowners said the swarms had relocated from their original landing spots so these probably were secondary swarms. the original did not relocate, it had already moved on. in both of these hives there were a lot of bees hanging on the insides of the boxes instead of the frames. so why the queen cells?

BeeMaster2 · May 10, 2013, 01:24:46 PM

Queen cells or queen cups? Queen cups are empty, cells have a queen larva in them.
It is strange for them to make queen cups before building out the hive.
JIm

beek1951 · May 10, 2013, 01:39:15 PM

It never hurts, when in doubt, to add a frame off eggs and brood.
If they need it, you win. If they don't, still no loss.

rober · May 10, 2013, 03:28:55 PM

queen cups not cells. i filled the hive with drawn out comb. what about the virgin queen fitting thru an excluder?

beek1951 · May 10, 2013, 07:18:23 PM

A virgin can squeeze through an excluder.