HELP PLEASE!!! WHAT's NEXT? Many Pictures Included....!

[Ocean]

Hey everyone, from previous posts, i've already told everyone for some reason my bees keep doing fake swarms? or i dont know what they are doing... ok so i decided to buy another hive and split them, but the thing is i dont even know how to do it...


about 3 times a week they swarm and come back, i dont know why, yes it is really hot these past few weeks, but why arent they leaving? they keep coming back...

so now i have a brand new hive  that i can split half of them into, what should i do? and how should i do it.. i also have a Swarm lure, if its any usefull..

Please help..

by the way its my first year keeping bees..

[Chad S]

I have been reading your posts, and seen the photo's.  Are you sure your bees are swarming, and not bearding?  Are you sure you are seeing queen cels, and not drone cells?  Can you move that hive out from under the eve of your house?  Get rid of the deflector thingy on the top, and vent the hive.  Bees will hang out on the front porch on hot days (bearding) not the same as swarming.

[Michael Bush]

If they actually fly off and cluster on a tree somewhere that's kind of suspicious.  If they are just bearding this is normal.  Is the old queen capable of flying?  Are her wings frayed?  Is she clipped?

[Ocean]

ok i know what u mean by bearding, yes they do that too, but when i say swarming,, i mean litterally they all get in the air and they make a loud sound for about 3-5 min, than they get on the tree, after that they come back down to the hive... they have done this about 5 times already... i will take pictures of the swarm on the tree right now.... and post the pictures in 15 min.

[Ocean]

here are the pictures of my swarm. that is still on the tree.

seems like some bees are cooling down the hive entrace while the rest are still on the tree....

and yes i took off that metal roof that they had :)

[Ocean]

I have been reading your posts, and seen the photo's.  Are you sure your bees are swarming, and not bearding?  Are you sure you are seeing queen cels, and not drone cells?  Can you move that hive out from under the eve of your house?  Get rid of the deflector thingy on the top, and vent the hive.  Bees will hang out on the front porch on hot days (bearding) not the same as swarming.

Out of the 3 things you told me to do, 1. I cannot move the hive, because on the other side there is this neighbor ( if u know what i mean lol :( ) 2. About seeing queen cells? maybe i dont really know, next time i go in there i'll make sure to bring the camera and take some pictures....  3. And yes i took off the deflector thingy from the top of the hive ;)... so out of the 3 i only did 1. 100% right lol...

[Michael Bush]

I guess I'd look at these issues.

Can the queen fly.  If not, then they may be tyring to swarm but she is not joining them.  In which case they will eventually leave with a virgin queen.

Are there swarm cells?  They are pretty easy to find by tipping the box up and looking at the bottom bars.  They usually stick down.  If there are swarm cells then you know they are trying to swarm.

If you find supercedure cells, maybe this is just mating flights by a new queen.

[Ocean]

I guess I'd look at these issues.

Can the queen fly.  If not, then they may be tyring to swarm but she is not joining them.  In which case they will eventually leave with a virgin queen.

Are there swarm cells?  They are pretty easy to find by tipping the box up and looking at the bottom bars.  They usually stick down.  If there are swarm cells then you know they are trying to swarm.

If you find supercedure cells, maybe this is just mating flights by a new queen.

 i dont know if she can fly or not, since i got my bees i didnt find the queen, because the place i bought my bees they said they dont mark queens or clip them..

about the swarm cells, well about 2 weeks ago i did inspection on my hive and found a couple of them and cut them off and threw them out...



if my swarm comes back... which it mostly like will, because it did this before about 5 times... what would be my next step???? like i said iam ready to split them any minute, i just dont know how to go about doing so....

please tell me what should i do next.

[Miss Chick-a-BEE]

Here are some various pictures I've caught before. The first two are queen cells, the last one is drone cells.

Supercedure cell - sticking out like a peanut


Swarm cell - strangely on the top of a frame rather than the bottom


Drone cells in a cluster


Hope this helps,
Beth

[Ocean]

than yes i had about 4-6 Queen cells that i cut off from the bottom of each frame...

[Miss Chick-a-BEE]

I'm sure you'll get lots of answers (some may seem conflicting) on this. But here's my thoughts.

- Since it appears your hive is trying to swarm, and have done this several times, then time may be short. But it's not a loss at this time.

- You cut out the swarm cells, but they can make more. If the queen is still there, then eggs she lays can become a queen.
 :?: Something I'm not sure on.... if the queen died, and they want to take off with a virgin, then I'm guessing they could end up without eggs? And be unable to make another queen?

Splits are not too hard.
- Needed..... two boxes, and enough frames for each.
- Frames with brood go in the centers.
- Honey and pollen frames outside that.
- Unfinished foundation frames farthest outside.

 :?:  :?:  Do you see any frames with queen cells? If so, put one of those frames in each hive. If not, buy queens ASAP and install just as you would with a new package.

Suggestion..... since your hive is in your backyard, in a possibly sunny spot, you might need to do some work so both hives get some shade. Because it looked like the best spot is RIGHT in the corner, and two hives won't fit there. I can't remember what you have said about shade during the day. But I had a thought.
- What about buying some lattice and making a nice little bee yard in that corner? I can imagine a really cute little area. Ground cover. Ceder chips. Lattice wall for some shade. Flowers? :)

(sigh) Expanding already. :) Bet you had no idea your babies would make you a "grandpa" so soon huh? LOL They multiply fast!!

Keep us informed as to how it's going,
Beth

[Michael Bush]

I have never seen destroying queen cells stop them from swarming.  Sometimes they swarm with the old queen leaving the hive queenless and sometimes they wait to start some new swarm cells and then leave with the old queen.  I've also never seen a clipped queen stop them.  They act just like you have been describing and then leave with a young virgin.  Perhaps you're old queen has frayed wings and can't fly and you destroyed the queen cells, so they keep trying to swarm with the old queen, who doesn't join them and they can't find a young queen to leave with.  My bet is they have started more queen cells and that is probably fortunate.  In the end the bees MAY leave without any queen if they get frustrated enough.

A split is cake.  Go through the hive and recreate the same arrangment except half goes in each hive.  In other words put the brood together in the middle with pollen and honey outside of that and honey above that into two boxes facing the old location.  That way the field bees will drift more evenly into them both.  If there are queen cells, give some to each half.  If that queen has frayed wings maybe they need to replace her anyway.  If they change their mind because of the split they can have a new queen if they decide they want one, or keep the old one if they decide they want her.  Of course it's possible they could still swarm, but hopefully you'll head that off.

[Ocean]

Michael and Chick-Bee thanx alot for all the usefull information, tomorrow i will get to work and make that split as you guys told me to do it, than i will take the final pictures and let you know what is going on...


before i'll make the split i will take the pictures on what is going on , on the inside of the first hive and than show you my location, how i setup my 2 hives, if i need adjustmetns please let me know...



wow , thanx alot  for everything guys, i really appreciate it, iam glad i have this website so i can turn to, and find answers anytime of the day. :) you guys are all great!

[Miss Chick-a-BEE]

The forum has turned out really nice, and there are enough of use "addicted" to the place that an answer is usually pretty darn quick. :) Thankfully I haven't had any problems myself lately, but I sure had a bunch of silly questions at first. Or I thought they were silly questions anyway. It's nice to have a group of people to chat with about my favorite stuff - bees, chickens, gardening, outdoor things - and always find a friend that's ready to listen and share with.

Well, enough with the mushy stuff. If I go on..... I might just bring tears to ya'all.  

Beth

[Finsky]

Basic problem seems to be, that hive is full and you still feed with syrup.

Main reason for swarming is continuous feeding. It is not normal that new hive, which has to build foundations, is willing to swarm.

* Take those metal plates off that you can handle you box easily.
* Take food frames off and extract them. Give them space that way

[wingmaster]

:roll: You just need to add some more room. I run two deeps just for the brood nest and this time of year I will have from 2 to 5 supers. You can have a lot of swarms from a hive that small. as soon as they fill the frames with brood and honey its time to add another super. If you keep up with them and keep at least one super that they can work on they will not swarm. If you are extracting the super and putting it back on you will still run out of room. Use enough supers so you can add them till the flow is over and the queen slows down a bit. Then extract them all at one time. That’s when I like to make my splits for the next year. A strong hive will out produce two or some times three small hives. so just keep adding room till your honey flow slows down.

[Ocean]

ok i would say i got sorta bad news, but maybe not that bad to you professional beekepers..


here it is, as you know yesterday my bees swarmed, well they used to come back when they used to do that about 2 weeks straight, well this time i woke up this mourning and did not see them... :( i guess they left


So i went in into the hive and found something out....

1. Obvious decrease in population....

2. the middle super was full with honey, 2-4 frames were already capped.. as you see on the picture... and rest were still being worked on...

3. the highest super was not even drawn out yet...

4. the hive body now... this what concerned me...  a. I still seen alot of brood waiting to be capped.... b. i found 2 queen cells. ( i took the picture u'll c it below, please confirm thats my new virgin queen. ) c. i've seen about 5 or 6 drones on each frame hanging around....


5. what i decided to do is to split them... so i took some 2 honey frames and 3 brood frames and put them into the other New hive that was ready for them... ( i also provided them with sugar syrup )....


6. I took away only 2 capped supers with honey..

--==Outlook--==: New Hive: Has 5 frames 2 with honey and 3 with brood ( 1 of them had the queen cell ), it also has the sugar suryp..


Old hive.. Has 5 Old frames, no sugar suryp, and also one frame with the queen cell....


Like i said, iam totally new to this beutiful beekeeping expriance, so please teach me and tell me what i did wrong, what should i do? and how should i fix it... Thanx alot, iam open for any suggestions...

Tomorrow when i have my tools i will take away those metal springs that i have on right now...

Also i was thinking should i buy a new queen? just in case, and where should i buy it?

ok lets cut to the chase and see the pix :)

i included some other pictures of myself so u guys actually know who u speaking with :)

here they are :

supers with honey









here are the brood frame with the queen cell ? am i right?





and this is me and behind me is my car

[Finsky]

1. Obvious decrease in population...

.

Normally half of bees go in first swarm.

.3. the highest super was not even drawn out yet......

.

If bees have idea to swarm, they do not draw foundations

Also, if hive has bees enough, it cannot use the space.

.5. what i decided to do is to split them... so i took some 2 honey frames and 3 brood frames and put them into the other New hive that was ready for them... ( i also provided them with sugar syrup ).....

.

It is late now when swarm escaped. Splitting is for prevent swarming.

No your both hives are too slow to develope. It is better keep them in one and you get a new queen.

What went wrong? Hives was full of honey and queen had no space to lay eggs. Too much syrup. Also bees have got lot of pollen, and surely they have got honey from nature.

Never mind. You are the first to do this. It took me 3 years before I got honey from mine hives when I started.

[Miss Chick-a-BEE]

Definately looks like a queen cell! You see how it has a different texture to it? Way different from just a bulging drone cell.

Sounds like you did fine. The split sounds like it has all it needs.

This is one thing I get so confused about. They had room. They had lots of brood, so the queen had places to lay. You had ventilation. Why do they swarm in what appears to be a great environment?

Give it all some time now, and let those queens hatch/mate/and start laying. Buying a queen is up to you, but I wouldn't right now. I'd try and see if they do alright raising this one. If you want a new queen, not one raised from your  hive, you can always requeen in the fall.

I don't think it's a bad idea to split. There appears to be enough brood, bees, and food to start two hives. Heck, a 2 pound package is not a whole lot of bees, and they do fine.

Great pics.

Beth

[Miss Chick-a-BEE]

Oh, and I wanted to say..... last year (March 17th, 2004) my hive swarmed. That same week I went ahead and split the hive. Only one side had a queen cell, and I wasn't even sure about it being a queen cell. Anyway, I bought two new queens just incase several weeks later. Ended up only needing one.

I guess I sorta did something dumb, but it worked out. I put the queen cages in each hive without finding the one queen and killing her. I suppose I took a chance of both queens that would fight dieing. It all worked out. Both hives grew wonderfully.

Beth