Very few eggs, queen cells, no queen cells....

[Ernest T. Bass]

There, now you're as confused as I am.  :-D

It's been a rainy, cold week, but the sun finally peeked through and when the thermometer needle crawled past "65˚F", I donned the bee suit and marched out to my two hives. Last week's inspection surprised me with a few uncapped queen cells randomly located in both hives, so this week I was planning to do a little splitting. My one hive had too many drones, so following the advice of a few helpful members here I was planning on giving them a queen cell from the better hive to ensure that they were covered in the high-quality-queen department.

Well, my "better" hive built several more cells on the bottom of another frame this week, and there were a couple cells whose caps looked ripe and ready to emerge. I searched high and low for nearly 45 minutes but did not find the queen in that hive. There was only a small patch of eggs, perhaps the size of a grapefruit. Quite a bit of capped brood, but lots of room for expansion and lots of empty comb. Not knowing if I was looking at a swarm situation or a supercedure, I made a split with a few queen cells and moved them to a nuc..

On to my drony hive. They didn't seem to have as many drones this week, and only a couple frames of drone brood, 'bout half of what I saw last week. They did have quite a bit more honey than the other hive, nearly a whole medium super of half-capped honey. Also, the queen cell was empty. I was almost certain I saw larva in it last week, but perhaps I was mistaken. There was only a small patch of eggs in this hive as well, but I never saw the queen. I didn't bother moving a queen cell from the other hive over as I was planning, because I figured they would just tear it down if they didn't think they needed it.

One more thing to point out about this hive.. They whole first (bottom) brood box was pretty much just empty comb, with a very little amount of stores. What's that about? The bottom box has always had the most activity/brood/bees in the past.

Anyway... I keep a close eye on both the hives throughout the day, so I highly doubt they swarmed without my knowing it. I've read that Carniolins and Russians will go into a self-inflicted brood dearth around this time of year, but these are Italians.

Sorry for the lengthy post. If anyone can tell me what's going on and if I handled it right (or wrong!), I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks!

Oh, and I saw my first varroa mite on a drone today.  :lol: I guess I shouldn't be happy...  :-\ Just one of those first time experiences..

[luvin honey]

Take this with a grain of salt since I'm new at this, too, but I've been doing a lot of reading on swarming and it sounds like they either swarmed or are getting ready to.

I watched one of my hives swarm today. It was not like I expected. It was done in a matter of minutes. I just had enough time to run to the house, grab my husband, run back out there and watch them go. And, they were not in a dense configuration at all. I would not have noticed them (from 200-300 yards) if I had not been worried they were about to swarm and watching them a lot.

Hope it works out the way you want it to!

[Ernest T. Bass]

I suppose anything's possible, but I highly doubt it. It would have had to have been within the last day or so, since there are some eggs. Usually they cluster nearby for a while too, and I stop by the hives several times a day.

[Brian D. Bray]

Well, my "better" hive built several more cells on the bottom of another frame this week, and there were a couple cells whose caps looked ripe and ready to emerge. I searched high and low for nearly 45 minutes but did not find the queen in that hive. There was only a small patch of eggs, perhaps the size of a grapefruit. Quite a bit of capped brood, but lots of room for expansion and lots of empty comb. Not knowing if I was looking at a swarm situation or a supercedure, I made a split with a few queen cells and moved them to a nuc..

Sounds like they swarmed prior to the new queens hatching, bees will do that.  I've known them to swarm as early as soon as the queen cells are capped.  No eggs, little if any capped brood, and backfilling brood cells are the classic example of a recently swarmed hive.

On to my drony hive. They didn't seem to have as many drones this week, and only a couple frames of drone brood, 'bout half of what I saw last week. They did have quite a bit more honey than the other hive, nearly a whole medium super of half-capped honey. Also, the queen cell was empty. I was almost certain I saw larva in it last week, but perhaps I was mistaken. There was only a small patch of eggs in this hive as well, but I never saw the queen. I didn't bother moving a queen cell from the other hive over as I was planning, because I figured they would just tear it down if they didn't think they needed it.

The bees might have changed their mind on swarming or superceding a queen.  Usually when only a few (1-4) queen cells are present it is a spercedure in progress not a swarm condition.   You could also be in a brood dearth due to lack of adequate forage so the hive shut down the population expansion until a new flow is in the forcast.


the more I observe the bees and how they do things I'm becoming convinced that they actually  are aware of not only what is currently blooming but what is getting ready to bloom so when they see certain plants (ie blackbberries) budding they begin to build population for the coming harvest.

One more thing to point out about this hive.. They whole first (bottom) brood box was pretty much just empty comb, with a very little amount of stores. What's that about? The bottom box has always had the most activity/brood/bees in the past.

What condition were the combs?  It is possible the lower box was filled with brood and it has hatched, the hive swarmed, and the queen hasn't either started to ay yet or hasn't cranked it up enough or have enough bees to utilize the low box.  If the combs are in good condition they'll refill and resude the space.

Anyway... I keep a close eye on both the hives throughout the day, so I highly doubt they swarmed without my knowing it. I've read that Carniolins and Russians will go into a self-inflicted brood dearth around this time of year, but these are Italians.

Sorry for the lengthy post. If anyone can tell me what's going on and if I handled it right (or wrong!), I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks!

Oh, and I saw my first varroa mite on a drone today.  :lol: I guess I shouldn't be happy...  :-\ Just one of those first time experiences..

Swarms don't take very long to happen, take a coffee break and you can miss the whole thing.

[Ernest T. Bass]

The comb is in great condition... The thing about the swarms, what about the eggs? Also, it had been rainy and cold for about 5 days before my inspection day, so it seems unlikely that they'd swarm in that weather.

I left a couple queen cells in the one hive, just in case they needed 'em... I guess we'll see what happens. They never ran out of room..

[Brian D. Bray]

The comb is in great condition... The thing about the swarms, what about the eggs? Also, it had been rainy and cold for about 5 days before my inspection day, so it seems unlikely that they'd swarm in that weather.

I left a couple queen cells in the one hive, just in case they needed 'em... I guess we'll see what happens. They never ran out of room..

I had a hive swarm in the rain today.  They got drenched and I had small clusters of bees all over the place,  The main cluster, with the queen, made it only about 10 feet from the hive--to the top of a prune tree.  Catching a swarm in the rain is not my favorite thing.