Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: GLOCK on June 06, 2014, 06:19:53 pm
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So I am planting tomato plants and I go up to get my cages and there in my shed by my bee yard as I come rolling up on my 4 wheeler I see a swarm hanging in hawthorn tree
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi952.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fae9%2FGLOCK3%2FBEEKEEPING%25202014%2FP6060043_zps7870f958.jpg&hash=a123fda90fe3158f91e7908354f061474b73a014) (http://s952.photobucket.com/user/GLOCK3/media/BEEKEEPING%202014/P6060043_zps7870f958.jpg.html)
so I go get my ladder
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi952.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fae9%2FGLOCK3%2FBEEKEEPING%25202014%2FP6060042_zps069b49c4.jpg&hash=57186602c224b0d034ef69639948d455faa34a24) (http://s952.photobucket.com/user/GLOCK3/media/BEEKEEPING%202014/P6060042_zps069b49c4.jpg.html)
The swarm has to hump's so I'm thinking two queens.
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi952.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fae9%2FGLOCK3%2FBEEKEEPING%25202014%2FP6060044_zps5ab90701.jpg&hash=a8cc6243025dd07ab2d8a389a92557ce47c57859) (http://s952.photobucket.com/user/GLOCK3/media/BEEKEEPING%202014/P6060044_zps5ab90701.jpg.html)
so I shake the swarm in to a bucket and put it in a hive.
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi952.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fae9%2FGLOCK3%2FBEEKEEPING%25202014%2FP6060047_zps62ffdaf8.jpg&hash=2d185b7a1a2725b0e1f99d345a4733f0c87cfbec) (http://s952.photobucket.com/user/GLOCK3/media/BEEKEEPING%202014/P6060047_zps62ffdaf8.jpg.html)
Then I figured I'd look at the hives and see is I can figure out who swarmed I had pulled queen out of 6 of my production 14 days ago so I figured it was one of them .
So I look over at a DBL. deep and there's a ball of bee's on the top entrance so I look closer and it's a queen so I grab her and take her over to the hive I just put the swarm in 15 min. ago and she fall in front of the hive and fly's away . So I had to run up town and when I got back the garbage can was full of bee's again and there where no bee's in the hive any more but I don't know it yet and I get another hive set it up and dump the garbage can again and check the first hive and realize there's no bee's in the first hive. so I go about my beeing and after a hour or so I look over and there the swarm back in the garbage can unbelievable so I get down on all fours and look in the can and there she was the queen so I put her in a cage and put her in the hive {has drawn comb and honey} and dump the bee's back in the hive . A hour later I check on her and there is no bee's just the caged queen and about 40 bee's .
So now I don't know what to do with the queen any suggestions ?
I wonder why they left I have never had a swarm act this why. New one to me .
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They are acting funny this year I think.
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Two or more queens.
Memorial day I removed a swarm from under a doublewide. Last weekend I checked it. There were 2 brood nests and 2 queens, both laying.
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Yep, what Iddee said.. Had to be two queens.. I try to pop in a frame of brood with no bees and a queen "includer" for at least a day to get the bees focused on that brood.. If the queen is a virgin I pull the excluder after a day, if a mated queen I leave it on there three or four days.. How do I tell the difference?? I guess... LOL.. if it looks like a prime swarm its probably a mated queen, smaller swarms will often have a virgin queen... By guess and by golly... I'd bet there were two or more queens in that swarm, just like you originally thought.
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Well two queens and I have no hive :sad: and a queen I don't need . If there where 2 queens they sure did make me feel like a dunce. In 5 years this is a first . Seems every year the bee's learn me some thin :-[
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I cant say how much they learn me, but I can say they often confuse me.
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Send me those queens. 2 of my hives have sent off virgins that have not returned, and my neighbor across the street's hive did the same. I have one hive with a laying queen, at least she is a good fresh one.
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Scott- "I cant say how much they learn me, but I can say they often confuse me.
I wish I had the desire to learn in elementay school as I do learnin' the bees
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Anytime I have an extra queen I find her some frames of comb and honey and a couple of frames of nurse bees and hopefully a little brood and see what happens. Usually works out ok. still need to add brood to the queen I found 2 days ago, but I had pond work to do and 96 degrees plus humid, I was too tired to suit up. Will get her some brood tomorrow. Meantime they are still coming and going out of the box I put them in with the combs I had thawed just to shut my freezer down for the summer.