She wants to get away. Again.

Donovan J · July 02, 2019, 08:25:12 PM

I split my hive a few weeks ago to mitigate a swarm threat. I put queen Rose in her own hive with resources and bees and they seemed to be doing fine. The hive i split from had queen cells but for some reason they were destroyed. This is when i found that virgin queen being attacked and soon killed. I inspected both hives on Sunday and found more queen cells built in Hive 1 and queen cells in queen Rose's hive with larvae it them. Should i split again? Did a queen hatch in Hive 1 and got killed on a mating flight so they are making more cells? The hive is still full of nectar and honey and they are just now starting to draw out the honey super. Queen Rose's hive has limited space and are not drawing out comb. They have plenty of food because when i fed them they filled all the empty cells with the syrup.

Donovan J · July 03, 2019, 05:07:17 PM

Does this queen have the genetics to swarm? If she does should I introduce a new queen?

van from Arkansas · July 03, 2019, 05:14:17 PM

Xerox, where is the placement of queen cells in Rose?s hive? I am trying to distinguish between swarming and supercedure.

Queen Cells on the bottom of frame or elsewhere?
Van

Donovan J · July 03, 2019, 06:00:37 PM

Quote from: van from Arkansas on July 03, 2019, 05:14:17 PM
Xerox, where is the placement of queen cells in Rose?s hive? I am trying to distinguish between swarming and supercedure.

Queen Cells on the bottom of frame or elsewhere?
Van

They're on the bottoms of frames. Theres only two right now

BeeMaster2 · July 03, 2019, 08:06:14 PM

Xerox,
If they were swarm cells and the queen swarmed, by the time the virgin queen was ready to fly, there are no more eggs or young larvae to produce new queens (unless you added a frame of eggs and larvae).
More likely they were supercedure cells and the old queen is still in there laying eggs.
Jim Altmiller

Donovan J · July 03, 2019, 08:55:44 PM

Quote from: sawdstmakr on July 03, 2019, 08:06:14 PM
Xerox,
If they were swarm cells and the queen swarmed, by the time the virgin queen was ready to fly, there are no more eggs or young larvae to produce new queens (unless you added a frame of eggs and larvae).
More likely they were supercedure cells and the old queen is still in there laying eggs.
Jim Altmiller

I saw the queen in the hive I put her in. I think they were cells that were already started and i didn't see them. A few days ago they were bronzed tipped which means the queen is going to hatch soon. So using bee math that a queen hatches 16 days after being laid, the eggs would've been laid around the 17th, which is two days before i made the split on the 19th. So they probably made the cells and i haven't noticed them this whole time.

Donovan J · July 03, 2019, 08:56:45 PM

I'm gonna go into the hive and see that one frame and see if they hatched because I really want to know.

Donovan J · July 03, 2019, 09:28:38 PM

Update: Saw a open queen cell that recently hatched. I looked at the frame that had queen cells and they were all still there but... I heard piping and listened closer and saw a virgin queen!! I immediately shut the hive up and I'm going to leave it alone for a week. Fingers crossed for a successful mating. Beyond excited right now.

BeeMaster2 · July 04, 2019, 06:19:53 AM

Xerox,
If you saw a hatched out queen cell and capped queen cells and heard queens piping, that means the bees are planning on swarming again. This is when I recommend going in the hive with a bunch of queen cages and open every cell and remove them. Then put one of them back in the hive. Bees will often swarm until the hive is so weak that the small hive beetles take over and kill it. If it were not for the SHBs they would survive it but bee a very weak hive.
Jim Altmiller

Donovan J · July 04, 2019, 12:04:32 PM

Quote from: sawdstmakr on July 04, 2019, 06:19:53 AM
Xerox,
If you saw a hatched out queen cell and capped queen cells and heard queens piping, that means the bees are planning on swarming again. This is when I recommend going in the hive with a bunch of queen cages and open every cell and remove them. Then put one of them back in the hive. Bees will often swarm until the hive is so weak that the small hive beetles take over and kill it. If it were not for the SHBs they would survive it but bee a very weak hive.
Jim Altmiller

I only heard one queen piping and she was starting to destroy other queen cells. We dont have SHBs here.