I tried to do a quick check of one of my hives yesterday. 3 1/2 hours later....
#1 hive I think swarmed Wednesday or Thursday. He heard piping that day and numbers were really good last time I checked. Yesterday numbers were low so pretty sure they swarmed. found some open queen cells. Did not see a queen. Went through every single frame. There was little brood but there wasn't any open cells. I have a hive with almost nothing but nectar and pollen. It's a top bar hive but it would be about 2 - 2 1/2 deeps worth of nectar. I found 3 frames that were around 60% capped pulled them out and put in 3 empty bars. I don't know if they can build fast enough for a new queen to lay some eggs. There is no place for a queen to lay. The numbers are low. I'd be ok with this hive simply making me honey this year as I have between me an hubby we have 6 other hives and I'd be happy with 3 hives.
So my options.
I thought about shaking some bees from another hive in there but worry that will just lead to robbing. I see this as the best option but worried the bees might fight or that the new bees might kill any virgin queen I have or the robbing thing. But I worry they don't have enough bees to build comb and finish drying and capping all the nectar.
Thought about putting a frame of capped brood in there so that at least the number of bees won't drop to drastically and the queen can try to lay in the cell when they open. I do have some brood frames in my other main TBH that are about 50% brood I can steal. But that hive was an overwintered nuc so they are doing the build and store thing right now with the queen and the foragers fighting for the open cells. But they are doing well with numbers expanding and frames of stored nectar.
really wanted to stick some eggs in there but we seem to have a really weird shortage of eggs going on right now. I looked in my other hive for eggs, found tons of frames with about 50% capped brood and 50% nectar. But didn't find eggs.
That is my two large hives. I have a lang nuc that is just building up but the frames aren't compatible with my TBH. Have a swarm that was caught a few weeks ago. Again in the build up stage very few bees, was a small swarm. They are in a lang that I"m trying also not compatible but probably too small of numbers to steal from anyway. They there are hubby's hives. two are nucs. One just did a queen replacement. Most are stacking in the nectar. The lack of eggs in all of the 5 overwintered hives is weird and troubling me. The hives have built up nicely this spring and there is nectar everywhere with lots of bees in most hives.
So I'm a little perplexed as to how I have lots of good bee density but not alot of eggs right now and the best way to at least ensure this nectar gets finished into honey.
Topic: Missed swarm - ?New opportunity (Read 911 times)