swarming

[sean]

Went by my apriay this morning andsaw a swarm in a tree. Havent been able to ascertain if they are my bees as yet. I just want to confirm though, will they swarm without a queen?

Oh i should mention i caught it placed it in a box with a queen excluder on the bottom but i didnt look for a queen.

i saw one hive without any eggs/brood so i gave it a frame with eggs. so all being well i should have an additional hive.
I got a feral hive  last week thursday but by sunday when i went to check on it it had absconded. 

[Scadsobees]

I'd guess that the queenless hive is the one that swarmed....

But increase is good.  But not in October in michigan :(

Rick

[sean]

went by the apiary yesterday only to see 2 swarms. one left while i was deliberating on how to get out of the tree(didnt look sturdy enough to climb) Went back this morning to capture the other one there was yet another one. I caught both of them. Onlyto see more bees swarming out of a box i had started about 3 weeks ago.
Spoke to a friend of mine she said thatt possibly the new box i started(without a queen) probably ended up with 2 queens and instead of fighting one left. Has this happened to anyone else?   

[Old Timer]

it's not uncommon to have more than one queen in a swarm, usually all virgins and usually all from after swarms. i've counted as many as four before but there could have been more. it sounds like you may need to incorporate some swarm prevention techniques into your beekeeping. if i have a hive that has decided to swarm i'll usually take the old queen and a few frames to put into a nuc. if there is many swarm cells and enough bees i might make up another nuc with some of the cells. removing some frames from the to make nucs and replacing them with empty frames or foundation will open up the nest and the bees will feel as if they've already swarmed. in a sense, they've already swarmed but in a way that you controlled. the major benefit is not having to climb trees or watch a swarm leave before you can hive it. you can always combine the nuc back into the hive later or keep it to increase you apiary.

[sean]

Yes i guess i will need to learn swarm prevention (MB here i come). Its my first experience with swarming. I started this nuc on the sept 18 without a queen so i was kind of surprised to see it swarming. But looking back i seem to have miscalculated by a couple days. But happily i've lost only 1 of 4 known swarms so i have increased my hive count by 3