Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ocba - Re: [ocba] Swarm ??

ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Catherine Adamson <cadamson AT alumni.unc.edu>
  • To: Scotty Hinson <scotty_hinson AT att.net>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Swarm ??
  • Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:24:26 -0400

I know it's tough facing a swarm, but the rule of thumb is to never ever ever destroy capped queen cells. If they are capped then there is a strong chance the queen has already left or will leave anyway within a day or so.

Did you find any whole on your second inspection? If then are no cells or remnants left, I suggest you have a mentor go through the hive with you and assess the situation.

Or possibly someone on this list might have an extra queen knocking around for you.

Catherine

On Mar 21, 2012 7:12 PM, "Scotty Hinson" <scotty_hinson AT att.net> wrote:
Last Friday I went into my hive for a check - thinking I needed to look for queen cells. This hive is very active and getting busier each day.
 
About 10 days before that I had added a super just in case it got too crowded. On Friday I found at least 3 queen cells and destroyed them. I did not go all the way through the hive as it was getting late. 
 
Then on Sunday I decided  I needed to go all the way through hive to make sure the queen was there and no swarm had occurred. It was about 3pm , cloudy, and had been drizzling rain most of the morning.
 
As I went through the hive I saw LOTS of drone brood in the supers and brood box as well as LOTS of drones throughout the hive. There were a couple of frames in the brood box full of capped brood. Nowhere did I see eggs or the queen. The  further I went the more agitated they got and I finished rather quickly.
 
SO. . .   my thought now is the hive may have swarmed and destroying the queen cells was a bad thing. What should I do next ? Go through it one more time or see if a new queen comes out of another queen cell or just re queen .???
 
Any ideas will be appreciated .
 
Scott Hinson

_________________________________________
ocba mailing list | North Carolina Beekeeping| http://www.theocba.org/
Manage Your Subscription: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ocba/



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page