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Author Topic: Swarm gone wrong.  (Read 3376 times)

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Offline GLOCK

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Swarm gone wrong.
« on: June 06, 2014, 06:19:53 pm »
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

so I go get my ladder

The swarm has to hump's so I'm thinking two queens.

so I shake the swarm in to a bucket and put it in a hive.

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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Gypsi

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Re: Swarm gone wrong.
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2014, 06:30:50 pm »
They are acting funny this year I think.
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Offline iddee

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Re: Swarm gone wrong.
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2014, 06:35:21 pm »
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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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Swarm gone wrong.
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2014, 07:22:47 pm »
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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Offline GLOCK

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Re: Swarm gone wrong.
« Reply #4 on: June 06, 2014, 08:08:15 pm »
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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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Swarm gone wrong.
« Reply #5 on: June 06, 2014, 10:23:21 pm »
I cant say how much they learn me, but I can say they often confuse me.
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Gypsi

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Re: Swarm gone wrong.
« Reply #6 on: June 11, 2014, 10:33:12 pm »
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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Offline Jen

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Re: Swarm gone wrong.
« Reply #7 on: June 11, 2014, 10:38:54 pm »
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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Gypsi

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Re: Swarm gone wrong.
« Reply #8 on: June 19, 2014, 08:21:35 pm »
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.
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