Dual cluster!

Hemlock · January 19, 2011, 04:35:50 PM

I think im imagining it. I searched to forum and got no results to explain it.

3 deep wintering hive. 1 cluster on top and 1 cluster on bottom. middle deep has no bee sin it.
all 3 deeps are heavy with honey still

could it have been the november combine?

I never could find that queen but the egg laying stopped short in early nov. And all those emergency queen cell then showed up plus the bees got super defensive.

Could there be a virgin queen in there maybe

AllenF · January 19, 2011, 07:23:36 PM

It would be a wasted virgin queen if there was one in there. How many bees are in each of the clusters? I am wondering how long they will last with no young. Do you have another hive to combine with if they are queenless?

Yuleluder · January 19, 2011, 07:28:44 PM

Yeah if you have a virgin in there she is way past her prime for mating. The window is very short for a virgin to become a mated queen.

Michael Bush · January 19, 2011, 09:18:01 PM

I've seen a cluster get split. There may not be two queens they just moved in different directions to get food and ended up separated. I'll bet on a warm day they will merge again.

There could be two queens or no queen or one queen...

backyard warrior · January 19, 2011, 09:30:46 PM

I tend to lean towards what mb said. I looked at my hives the other day i had some up in the honey super clustered and majority of them in the bottom box. My personal opinion the bees where up stairs moving stores and it got cold out and they clustered away from the main cluster.

Hemlock · January 19, 2011, 10:17:15 PM

Thanks everyone

there was a perfectly good new queen on the hive that hosted the combination

TOP DEEP

MIDDLE DEEP

BOTTOM DEEP

Tommyt · January 20, 2011, 09:01:09 AM

Nice Pictures
this is one of those times when a Painted Queen may have helped you

Tommyt

Finski · January 20, 2011, 10:11:31 AM

.
Take the medium off from the hive that bees may move together.
3 boxes is too much to wintering hive.

I had just now a splitted cluster. Yesterday i took 2 frames off between clusters and now they were together. Temp was today -5C. They stand that handling.

Hemlock · January 20, 2011, 10:14:03 AM

all my queens are marked. Except for those november emergency queens....if they actually made one

i checked every frame during 2 separate inspections. all i had to go by was the behavior of the colony

All deeps are loaded with stores and it was the warmest day so far. Gives then lots of reasons to move around. Don't know what to think

Can't check them each week now that its winter. Snow today. Maybe there back together. I'll use the stethoscope and listen to each box later on

Finski · January 20, 2011, 10:51:17 AM

.
This is not a time to check hives. Just shange the order of second and third boxes. You need not see the queen in the hive.

Hemlock · January 21, 2011, 10:37:54 AM

I'll take out the box with no bees in it. But then what if i put it back ON TOP.

once the 2 clusters merge they will still have room to move upwards.

backyard warrior · January 21, 2011, 03:55:43 PM

Hemlock the best thing you can do is take that box without the bees off and just have two. If they need feed give them fondant on top of the frames the less space the better for them to keep cluster temperature ;)

Hemlock · January 30, 2011, 08:15:08 PM

wnet to take out the middle box a week later. The bottom cluster had moved up into it some. So i shook the smaller top cluster into that box and removed the top box. now all the bees are together in the 2 boxes. no sign of problems since.

Thanks to all for the recommendations.

Finski · January 31, 2011, 03:36:17 AM

Quote from: backyard warrior on January 21, 2011, 03:55:43 PM
Hemlock the best thing you can do is take that box without the bees off and just have two.

yes, Hemlock's advise is the best. Check that the bee boxes have enough capped food.