The Yellow Hive

[Ziffa]

Good Monday Morning everybody!

I'm learning so much from Jen's posts, I thought I would throw my attempts as Swarm Prevention Management in as well!

So my yellow hive has what I call my football queen.  She lays a tight football brood and is just prodigious.  I was trying to manage this hive perfectly so that I wouldn’t lose this queen.  Heh.  Perfect and bees – never works, right?

So last week I checked this hive and it was full of bees but only saw  a couple of queen cups.  Didn’t look like anything was in them, but my eyes are getting old.  Lot’s of drones and their orientations had been scaring the daylights out of me because there are so many bees I was sure it’s swarming.  So I made the decision to split this weekend. I figured the timing was pretty close to perfect.

Yesterday was less than perfect conditions.  Bright and sunny, but WINDY.  But I knew if I didn’t get in there we would probably lose them this week . So suited up and popped the lid. 

Well, I was right.  Packed to the GILLS with sweet calm bees.  Found about 8+  swarm cells all capped!  Still light wax so I don’t think they were very long capped.  I hate that all the calendars say this is “Sensitive development stage”  because I worry that I’ve messed them up checking the hive. 

Anyways, went through the entire hive, frame by frame, TWICE. And couldn’t find her.  We were losing light and temperature and the winds were rising, so made the decision to make 2 nucs with swarm cells, some brood and stores.  The hive had been 3 medium 8 frame.  I pulled 10 frames split into the two nucs, put 2 empty frames back in the yellow hive (now 2 mediums – the bottom box still had some room as well, my bees never seem to build wall to wall) and hoped for the best. 

Here are my questions (I know I tell long stories before I get to the questions! :p)

1.  If I moved the queen with some queen cells into  one of the nucs.,  will she kill the cells and set up shop?  Or will she still swarm, even though she has lots of room and fewer bees now?
2.  I can’t remember if its 3 days before capped or 3 days before hatch that she usually flies.  The hive was full of bees, so many made it really hard to hunt for the queen, so I don’t think she had already gone and I did see a few eggs and very small larva.  Do you think she was still there?

Hubby is going to keep a good eye on the hive, as there were still a lot of bees in it and I left 3 cells there.  Didn’t want to risk that she had already gone.  Now I’m worried this hive is going to kill itself with swarming and also that I’ve lost my football queen  . 

Comments, advice and improvements on process gladly accepted. 

Love,
Ziffa

PS. interesting pattern of the bees on many of the frames.  They were almost all oriented vertically and very calm, not a lot of moving around, just hanging there.  And even with the winds and us pulling the hive completely apart, not one sting or even a ping.  They were just calm and sweet as could be.  Pre-swarming behavior?  Or just lucky?

[iddee]

OK, sit back, take a deep breath, and sip your martini. You are over worrying again.
As soon as you can Wednesday or later, go back in and have hippy check for eggs with you. The one with eggs has her majesty.
Adjust from there. What you did was the right thing to do, EXCEPT THE WORRYING. 

[Ziffa]

Thanks Iddee, that makes me feel better.  I have to work all week, but I'll try and talk mikel into popping them and checking for eggs on Wednesday.

I'm assuming that means if I did move her she will dispatch the queen cells i moved with her and not fly off? 

I wish I didn't worry so much too!  It's just that this is the first year I am trying to pro-actively manage them with a goal in mind.  I go in thinking I'm  all set with a good plan, but always come out second guessing myself.   

And, by the way, my preferred post-beekeeping beverage is a nice glass of wine!  Here for your viewing pleasure is a shot of my bee-work taken while enjoying said beverage! 




love,
ziffa

[Jen]

Gin or Vodka over ice with a float of green jalapeno olive juice to float.

Girl! Your story is so close to mine. My bees swarmed three times last year, I was sweet and innocent then and didn't know what to do. This last winter I bulked up on hive learning thru this forum. I wasn't prepared for my swarms this year, but somehow I retained enough info on what equipment to grab and go and retrieve both of my swarms.

If I were in your situation I would be preparing swarm boxes and a bucket of sorts to retrieve your swarm... in the event that your home when they swarm, or you find them in near by tree etc.

I sure with I had a queen clip during my expeditions.



 

[Ziffa]

Ha!  That 'tini sounds good, sans the olive juice.  I like pretty much everything dirty, EXCEPT my martinis.

Jen - if you look at those funny little boxes in the middle of the right hand stand - those are the DCoates nuc boxes the hubby built for this year.  I am sure there is a link to them somewhere on the forum.  They are quick, easy and cheap to make!

We had the same experience as you  last year - had 5 swarms  within one week  and were catching them left and right and finding any spare box to stick them in! I lost one hive to what I now think was swarming suicide.  One hived swarm never took, i think the queen didn't get mated properly, I nursed 3 through the winter and gave the other away to a friend.

This year we are more prepared!  But I'm still trying to do splits beforehand to prevent the swarming and manage them well.  It's tough work!  I think Yellow Hive will still probably swarm, but we'll see.  Maybe I was lucky and moved the queen!

And yes! Queen clips are muy necessary.  We hived one swarm 3 times last year before we finally caught the queen to keep them in the box! 

Good luck with your swarmy girls!  I'll be lifting a toast to us 'beekeeping gals'  next time i'm enjoying my post-beekeeping beverage - whatever it may be!

love,
ziffa

[Jen]

Ziffa- ""This year we are more prepared!  But I'm still trying to do splits beforehand to prevent the swarming and manage them well.""

I was curling up with all my printed stuff on spring managment to prevent the swarms. The next day, I stepped outside right in the middle of the first swarm. Dang! I was so not ready.

And another thing... I really have to get the swarm managment down, cause my wonderlust girls like to land in the trees and the ground at the top of this bank. So I have to climb it, go up and down the bank to finish the swarm catching job. This girl aint what she used to be when it comes to climbing trees 

[riverbee]

"interesting pattern of the bees on many of the frames.  They were almost all oriented vertically and very calm, not a lot of moving around, just hanging there.  And even with the winds and us pulling the hive completely apart, not one sting or even a ping.  They were just calm and sweet as could be.  Pre-swarming behavior?"

ding, ding, ding!!! yes, and the prize goes to 'first lieutenant' ziffa of the female bee brigade.......
what iddee said, and liked his comment about the worrying part...

was looking to see in the picture if you were face down on the ground with an empty wine glass in a pair of jammies.....(lol jen!).......
oh you two make me laugh, and it sure is cool to have you both on board here in the forum, so when we get tired of the boys and some of their wayside threads on things, we can start our own wayside thread and yammer away.......

ps, best wishes to you on the bees and keep us posted ziffa!

[LazyBkpr]

Wait...   whoa,, hold on a second.....

I was sweet and innocent

     

[Jen]

Jen- ""My bees swarmed three times last year, I was sweet and innocent then and didn't know what to do.

Scott- ""Wait...   whoa,, hold on a second.....""   


What Jen really meant:  "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds! 'Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie"