Queen cells, splitting hives and Swarming!

[Mrs Dobby]

Did our weekly inspections on Thursday, only to find we had lots of Queen Cells in 3 of the hives! Really surprising seeing how early in the season it is (last years first divisions were in May), so we had to divide the hives, and now have 6 hives and 3 nucleus boxes full of bees!

We also took action with Hive 1, the hive that has a drone laying worker in it, took the hive 200 yards away and tipped out all the bees, then put in several frames of brrod from a donour hive along with a Queen cell. The idea behind tipping out the bees a distance away is that the flying bees will return, but the laying worker wont be able to fly back, so it removes her from the hive, giving us a chance to get a new queen into what was a doomed hive!

Had a phone call from our co-beekeeper allotment friends yesterday, one of the hives was swarming (Im off sick atm, been really bad with the flu for past 2 days, fever broke last night and Im getting better but as weak as a kitten today), so they got a nuc box to capture the swarm, only to find it went back into the hive it had come from! Strange!

Anyone else had any queen cells, swarms or other problems yet this year?

[chris]

Why do they swarm? Angry response? I found my site has hives on it! Potential there perhaps in a few years

[Mrs Dobby]

They swarm in order to increase the number of colonies, and for that reason only.

When conditions are good, the bees will manufacture Queen Cells, where an egg will be placed and fed with royal jelly for 5 days (rather than the normal 2 to 3 days that a drone or worker grub is fed) in order for it to mature into a Queen bee. Once the queen cell is capped the bees thin down the existing Queen ready to leave the hive with her in order to start a new colony.

When they swarm they fill up first on honey, which gives then a couple of days worth of food to fly and find a new home for the colony, with full tummys it is very difficult for the individual bees to sting, so generally they are quite placid (even if it doesnt look like it!)

About half of the mature bees will leave with the old queen, the rest will remain in the hive with the queen cell, waiting for it to hatch and the new queen to take her mating flights before she starts to lay.

If you can catch a swarm, then it can be treated for Varroa infestation immediately (as their is no brood in the new box you put it in) and will normally quickly build the colony back up into a viable hive.

Swarming usually happens in May thru to August, but in order to enable the colony to build up sufficient numbers to allow it to survive the winter its usual to control swarming and splits by removing any queen cells after June, as the old saying goes

'A swarm in May is worth a field of hay, a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon, but a swarm in July isnt worth a fly!'

Generally a strong hive will give anything from 1 to 6 splits a year, depending on weather conditions and local food availability.

With 6 hives we are looking at being able to supply 12 to 18 nucleii (5 frames of bees and a viable queen is known as a nucleus, a full hive will contain 10 to 11 frames of brood and the 'supers' where the bees store the honey) to new / existing beekeepers, generally these nucleii will sell commercially for £200+, whereas privately they are usually sold for £130 to £180 depending on local supply.

HTH

[chris]

Bloomin eck, only expected a sentence reply Thanks, interesting to read!

[Mrs Dobby]

Lol, why respond with just a sentance when a paragraph will do a much better job!

[BigShot]

Why do they swarm? Angry response? I found my site has hives on it! Potential there perhaps in a few years

Mrs D's description of the process by which swarming takes place is a good one.

I'd have replied by quoting Phil Chandler ("The Barefoot Beekeeper"):
"Swarming is is an expansive, optimistic act, by which honeybees reproduce their colonies. When they feel prosperous, and the weather is set fair, and plentiful food is coming in, that is when the colony divides and half of it moves away to a new location."

The way swarms are managed (if they are managed) in a natural beekeeping setting is quite different to the way they are managed in conventional hives like Mrs D (and most western beekeepers) uses. Some on the natural approach simply let the bees swarm as and when they see fit. Those that go at a good time will survive, those that do not, won't. Thus natural selection takes its course selecting for bees that swarm at good times.