Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => DOWN UNDER BEEKEEPING => Topic started by: Willy on December 24, 2013, 06:49:37 am

Title: Dealing with a swarmed hive
Post by: Willy on December 24, 2013, 06:49:37 am
Hi,

I'm new to beekeeping and recently lost a hive that swarmed early in spring. The hive died out completely and I'm just wondering if there was anything I could have done to save it.

The first inspection after winter was mid Sept and I'm guessing because we had a mild winter and very early spring that they had built up quicker than I expected.

On first inspection there was about 20 queen cells and what seemed to be a reduced number of bees so I'm guessing that they had already swarmed. Then over the next two months the bee numbers just dwindled away to nothing.

Is there anything that I could have done on that first inspection (apart from inspecting earlier and giving them more space!) that may have saved the hive?

I'm guessing that they may have swarmed more than once. I also found a queen on the ground at the front of the hive about a month after the first inspection. I put her back in the entrance but things just kept going down hill.

Any tips advice appreciated.

Thanks

Willy
Title: Re: Dealing with a swarmed hive
Post by: HammerGa on December 24, 2013, 12:24:21 pm
Something similar happened to me. The queen swarmed and the Virgin queen did not mate. and it went down hill from there. I re queened but I believe too much time passed and I ended up with a weak hive. I only had the one hive or I think I could have added a frame of brood when I saw the virgin queen was not laying and turned things around.