MedusA Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 I had a surreal experience on Tuesday. My bees at home appeared to be swarming. My first thought was that I'd missed a second QC and it was a cast. So I watched them closely to see where they ended up. The air was full of bees. Then all of a sudden they started heading back and landed on the front of the hive and slowly started going back in. At first I couldn't work out what was going on. Then it occured to me it could have been a mating swarm (where the virgin emerges for her mating flight and the bees get confused and start to go with her before realising their mistake and heading back). I'd heard about them but never seen one before. I discussed it at my local BKA apiary meeting that night and had it confirmed that was what it was. Fascinating! Beekeeping is certainly never dull! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 That might explain something I watched last year - thought it was a swarm from one of my hives, told my neighbour so he could collect it, went back few hours later to find the swarm had gone.....back into my hive In my case they had travelled all of about 15-20 feet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Wow, I'd love to see that. Should be seeing eggs any time soon, then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedusA Posted June 3, 2012 Author Share Posted June 3, 2012 Should be seeing eggs any time soon, then! Nothing yet (Friday was inspection day), but I'm hopeful she will start laying soon. If not I might put a test frame of eggs from my nuc in. Sometimes that seem to work in dropping a hint to a newly-mated queen. My friend has a hive she artificially swarmed a few weeks ago. She was really pleased last week when there were loads of eggs and larvae, but this week it's all turned out to be drone brood! Even in the super. I wonder what's going on there? Laying worker? Incompletely mated queen? What do we do with all that drone brood.....not to mention the wrecked super frames? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Are there multiple eggs in cells, and are they sometimes halfway up the cell? If so, it's drone-laying workers and there is no hope I'm afraid. If the eggs are laid normally then it's a drone-laying queen, and she could requeen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Should be seeing eggs any time soon, then! Nothing yet (Friday was inspection day), but I'm hopeful she will start laying soon. If not I might put a test frame of eggs from my nuc in. Sometimes that seem to work in dropping a hint to a newly-mated queen. My friend has a hive she artificially swarmed a few weeks ago. She was really pleased last week when there were loads of eggs and larvae, but this week it's all turned out to be drone brood! Even in the super. I wonder what's going on there? Laying worker? Incompletely mated queen? What do we do with all that drone brood.....not to mention the wrecked super frames? I presume your friend spotted single eggs at her inspection as she thought all was well so she has an unmated queen ....has the weather been bad? Anyway. She needs to find her and re-queen. Some people say that brood frames with drone cells are reworked by the bees and that certainly has been my experience,but she can always s"Ooops, word censored!"e back to the midrib and let them redraw the frames. The super frames can be left. The bees can put more honey in a drone cell and some people use drone comb in their supers. I wouldn't worry about using honey frames that have had brood in it . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
