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  • From: Marty Hanks <marty AT justbeenc.com>
  • To: Julie Spero <jcstevens AT gmail.com>, Orange County Bees <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] swarm cells advice?
  • Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2012 17:47:51 -0400

Hi Julie,
 
Welcome to the club!!
 
I have atached a picture of a queen cell. You will notice the "peanut" shape to the cell. This is in the middle of the comb (frame for you) so its a supercedure. If this is what  you are looking at on the bottom of one or more frames then yes your are looking at a swarm in progress. I would first recomend you google what drone cells look like...they are longer and more grouped together like brood....looks more like pencil erasers. I have found my drone brood to be near or at the bottom as well on pre made foundation wax. They can put it anywhere, but it seems to find it way to the edges or bottom...so that could be it.
 
Now the $21,362 dollar question...what the heck to do!??
 
If you do confirm that there are NEW eggs in other cells, meaning you still have a laying queen "IN" the hive you could try your idea of removing the cells and adding a super. As you will come to expect from bees....you can expect anything to happen and never what we want them to do!...and thats ok. Since this "swarm" process is already in full gear (for several days now) you are at a 50/50 point right now. If you do see new eggs and want to try and remove the swarm cells then you have to check every frame! At this time i'd also recommend you moving the outer two frames (in spots 1 & 10) inward to the center area like slots 4 & 7. This will will give them some space as well and by moving the frames w/ food to the outer most locations you are prepping them for winter. Those two steps in themselves could stop the swarm..."could". Now it sounds like you have 3/4 of the super full w/ honey-syrup? IF so do the same there and remove the outer (non drawn) frames to the center around a middle frame and take the most drawn and capped frames and move them to the outer most slots. This will again free up space in the middle of the colony and give them the feeling of more space.
 
IF you want to throw in all your cards and try your best shot at removing the urge to swarm W/O doing a SPLIT then add the third super, but move up 4 frames of honey into it. This is assuming that its the same size as the top super now. in this way you are drawing up more bees into the upper most portion of the hive...thereby reducing the congestion downstairs.  Plus this will provide them brand new frames in the now middle super to give them more space and work to do which should aid in the reduction of the swarm mood.
 
As to grumpy bees...there has been several on & off thunder storms...always a trigger...plus yes the heat could do it...sometimes the dark colored clothing moving near by is a trigger.
 
I hope that is helpful....IF you want to try one last ditch method to try and keep the bees you could do a split. Just divide in half what you have and make sure you find the queen. Leaving her in the box w/o the new cells. This major disruption and colony reduction should help. when the new queen emerge then they are more likely to just get matted and stay put. Let me know if you need any help or another pair of eyes.
 
SO many choices...SO little time....no really...you need to hurry up and make a choice or they will do it for you!
 
marty hanks
just bee

 
 

 
On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 3:30 PM, Julie Spero <jcstevens AT gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,

I'm a new beekeeper this season.  I did a hive inspection this morning (last one was about 3 weeks ago).  I have a hive body and a super.  The two middle frames in the super had some larvae and some capped brood  (about 1/3 of both middle frames).  In the hive body, there were several cells on the lower edges that looked like they might be swarm cells but I'm not sure if the comb is just being drawn in a strange pattern.  I left the cells alone and added another super just in case (the old super was about 3/4 full of capped and uncapped honey. The frames on either end had drawn out but mostly empty comb).   

If they are swarm cells, do I need to go back in and destroy them or will the extra room in the super quell the urge to swarm?  

The bees have also gotten noticeably more aggressive in the past week-- while standing about 2 feet away from the hive earlier in the week, 3 bees flew out at me and one stung me, which was a surprise.  I've heard a clicking sound and also saw a bumblebee fly into the hive but didn't notice either during my inspection.  Any theories on the aggressive behavior?  Perhaps the hot weather?    

Thanks,

Julie

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--
Marty Hanks
Just Bee, Apiaries
 
 Home of the Orange County Honey Project.
"Created by Artisans....Bottled by Humans"

Attachment: queen cell.JPG
Description: JPEG image




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