Lost a hive

[Slowmodem]

I was feeling really good.  Both hives made it through the winter and spring is almost here.  Went out today and only one hive is active.  One of the hives is dead.  I took the top off and banged it around and nothing.  I suspect that this last cold spell may have done it in.  I haven't had a chance to look into the hive (hopefully in the morning I can), but I suspect that they had brood and tried to cover it up and the temperature got down to 24F the other day and froze them out.  That's happened to me before.  However, the other hive is going balls to the wall.

Last year, the hives swarmed the first week or so in April.  So I'm thinking that it's too late to do a split on the remaining hive, they've probably decided to swarm.  I'm going to set up a baited swarm hive trap in the usual place (both swarms last year went to a dogwood tree around 50 feet from the hives) and hope if it swarms, they will just go into the box and be happy.

My question is, if the hive is preparing to swarm, doing a split won't prevent that, right?  I would just be left with two really weak hives and a swarm.  Is that right?

Does my plan to catch the swarm sound feasible?

I know that if I can look in the hive in the morning, I'll have more information, but I'm just mulling over possibilities tonight.

Please give me your thoughts.

Oh, here's some additional information:  The two swarms last year were from two nucs I had started.  After the swarms, one of the nucs died out, but one of them made it through the winter, but it is the one that just died.  The hive that's happy and healthy is the swarm that I caught in the new swarm vacuum I got last year.

[iddee]

When you have swarm cells is the BEST time to split. Just be sure you move the queen to the new location and give her plenty of open cells or foundation. It's called a controlled swarm. If more than 1 frame has swarm cells, and there are enough bees, you can do a 3 way or 4 way split.

Just DON"T leave the queen in the old location.

[Perry]

Just because a hive swarmed last year the first week of April, don't assume it will happen again this year. Follow Iddee's advice, get in there and know what is going on. If you find swarm preparations, then it's a perfect opportunity to make up the loss.

[Jen]

Hi Slow, "My question is, if the hive is preparing to swarm, doing a split won't prevent that, right?"

         Just so you know, swarm prevention isn't a gaurantee, but it helps. I've been doing what I can to prevent it this year, but alas, one of my hives swarmed yesterday. I was fortunate to be home and catch it. I'm told and have learned here that the bees may plan ahead several weeks before the actual event. It's hard to know what to do when they are that far ahead of us 

[Slowmodem]

Well, hopefully I can get in there tomorrow.  I guess I need to study up on swarm cells tonight.  Hopefully I can find the queen.  If not, I may have to do the "move some brood cells up into the second box above a queen excluder" for a day and then do a formal split.

In a way, thought, I hate to do too much.  If I mess it up, I don't know if I can get more bees this late in the year.  But, there's nothing like living on the edge, I guess. 

[Jen]

Well guess what Slow? This year I decided to not rifle around in the deeper brood sections of my hives all spring long, practiced swarm prevention by adding supers and making sure the queen can move into the next box without crossing nectar or pollen
... Bingo!... Swarm! heavy sigh, what's a beek to do? the best we can I guess ~ 

[iddee]

Swarming is the bee's way of propagating the species. It's like teenagers, you can sometimes postpone the inevitable, but it will happen sooner or later. They are going to multiply.

[ledifni]

Swarming is the bee's way of propagating the species. It's like teenagers, you can sometimes postpone the inevitable, but it will happen sooner or later. They are going to multiply.

It's one of the small ironies of beekeeping.  If you think about it, swarming is the one and only (biological) reason that hives exist at all.  Hives don't exist to make worker bees -- they're a dead end, infertile.  They exist purely to feed and protect the queen, so she can reproduce another fertile female, which she does by making new queens and swarming.

But as beekeepers, we have a huge motivation to ensure that hives *don't* do the one and only thing they are designed to do -- or at least make sure that if they do it, they do it on our terms.  I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that, since I'm a fan of nature being allowed to enforce its own rules; but on the other hand, European honey bees would most likely not survive on this continent at all if not for us, so I'm willing to interfere to a degree.

[Jen]

Nicely put Led 

[Les]

Sorry you lost your hive....such a disappointment.  Hope does Spring eternal though...hope whatever decide to do is successful.

[Slowmodem]

Went into the good hive today (kind of).  The top box was a medium and was only there as a shim for the sugar (mountain camp).  All the sugar was gone, so I guess it came in handy.  Tried to get the top deep brood box off and all the frames were stuck to the frames in the lower deep brood box.  I run two deeps for the brood boxes.  So me and dad took both boxes off and laid them down on the back on the ground, and pried them apart.  Didn't make the bees too happy, but sometimes that's the only way to do it.  The top box was where all the action was, so I put it on the bottom, and put the other box on top, so now they're swapped.  Hopefully they'll think they have lots of room to expand and they won't want to swarm.  Oh, I did see a lot of drone brood when I pulled the frames apart between the two levels.  I looked for mites and didn't see any, so that's a good sign.

Also, I put a box in "the swarm tree" (the dogwood where all the swarms have gone so far).  It's got 8 frames of drawn comb.  So if they do swarm, maybe they'll go into that box.  If not, I still have a vacuum I can use if I'm around when they swarm.





Last year I tried the screened bottom boards with the oil tray to help with mites and hive beetles.  I guess they're good in theory.  But with my wonky schedule and stuff, it's hard to keep them changed and in good order.  So this year I'm going back to just a regular screened bottom board with the white plastic-coated cardboard with black squares painted on it.  I think I'll leave the bottom in for a few more weeks until the hive gets settled and I know it's going to stay warm. 

[Perry]

Swarm trap looks good. You might have to check the bee space on your deeps, if it's not enough they'll propolize them together. A piece of wire and a couple of wooden sticks to make a garrote works.

[Slowmodem]

Swarm trap looks good. You might have to check the bee space on your deeps, if it's not enough they'll propolize them together. A piece of wire and a couple of wooden sticks to make a garrote works.

I think about that in the spring, and then the next spring rolls around and I think, "I meant to do that string thing!"    Maybe I'll do it this year (if I can remember it).