I think I stopped a swarm... maybe

[Greg Peck]

I have a hive that was one deep. About 10 days ago I noticed a supercedeure  cell on one of the frames with a larva inside. I left it to let the bees do there thing. I did not feel they needed a second box at that time so I just closed them up. Today I look out the window and see a bunch of bees on the ground in front of the hive. (like a small swarm but they were just in a pile on the ground) . I figured that they needed more space so I added a second box. I have some cement board in front of the hives to keep grass down, a lot of the bees were on the board so I picked it up and dumped the bees in the upper box. Then I saw a queen in the remaining bees on the ground, so I thought this must have been a swarm getting ready to take off. I caught the queen and put her in a cage then put her and as many of the rest of the bees in a nuc. It started to rain so I just put the nuc off  to the side intending on taking them to another bee yard when it stopped raining. When I went out to move the nuc later all that was left was the queen in her cage with the attendants I put in. Not one other bee in the nuc. So I brought the queen inside the house to keep her warm. So was this a swarm that I caught in the act or something else?  I will check the hive again in a few days to see if there is a new queen in there. Probably make up a nuc from several hives and put this queen in over the weekend. Any thoughts about this? I have seen a swarm take off before but normally they had just bearded outside the hive then took off this was different for some reason.


Click to enlarge!

[doak]

Was the queen clipped? That pile of bees looked too big to be the "balling" the queen bunch.
I would shake up a nuc with a couple frames with brood and go for it.
That way you should find out if she was the one being super ceded. doak :)

[Greg Peck]

She was not clipped. Does not mean she was still able to fly though :) I will know more this weekend.

[johnnybigfish]

I cant help you Greg...But I am interested in the cement boards you mentioned. Is this the same stuff as durock, or wonderboard? the stuff you nowadays put in shower stalls to hold up ceramic tile to?...Sounds like a great way to keep the grass down!
your friend,
john

[Greg Peck]

Johnny, yes the cement board stuff is as you described. The stuff I used was scrap from when I put in some new tile at our house about 2 years ago. The scraps I had were about 2 feet wide which works out pretty good for the front of the hive. I had used plywood in the past but it just rots and grass grows out of it but this cement board works really well.