Author Topic: Parent Hive management after Swarms (Read 3568 times)

Kathi · « **on:** June 18, 2018, 10:16:02 am »

I'm in my second year with my first hive. This Spring it swarmed the end of May, and 16 days later a secondary swarm. We caught both swarms. On inspection of the parent hive there are still lots of bees and sealed queen cells. What do I do with the parent hive? Do I let it requeen itself, or buy a queen asap? I'm getting conflicting advice on the need to get this hive back on track for winter in Nova Scotia.

Any advice much appreciated

Kathi

apisbees · « **Reply #1 on:** June 18, 2018, 08:05:55 pm »

It is still early and lots of time for a queen to mate and get laying again.

riverbee · « **Reply #2 on:** June 18, 2018, 08:59:06 pm »

kathi,

please describe your parent hive for us, for example how many frames of bees, how many sealed queen cells, where are the cells located?

are you using langstroth equipment? 10 frame deeps? do you have one deep on or two deeps on? describe your set up.

are your frames all drawn?

Bakersdozen · « **Reply #3 on:** June 19, 2018, 06:26:23 am »

Kathi, I guess it would depend on your goals. Are you prepared for the colony growth to stagnate and even decline a little until the queen hatches, mates, and then starts laying? Or, are you hoping to build the colony back up in time to get some honey from them? If you want some honey, and if there is still a honey flow, you might want to buy a queen and save yourself a lot of time. Are there any queens available to buy? apis says you have time for them to rear their own queen, so the choice is yours. Unless the original colony has some characteristics I really like or I can't find a mated queen to buy, I like to requeen instead of waiting. (A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush or is it a mated queen in a cage is worth 2 capped queen cells?

)

Kathi · « **Reply #4 on:** June 19, 2018, 09:06:07 am »

More information on the parent hive:

Langstroth equipment with 2 10 frame deeps and 2 honey supers. There are approx. 5 sealed queen cells between the 2 deeps. All frames are drawn with lots of nectar and pollen. I'd estimate maybe 10 frames of bees.

I'm not really hoping for honey this year given the swarming so my goal would be to manage the hive for bee health. Also, I haven't got confirmation yet that I can get a queen this week.

Kathi

robo · « **Reply #5 on:** June 20, 2018, 06:52:08 am »

Seems like it was a super strong hive to give off two swarms and still be pretty strong. I would want to keep the genetics and let nature take it's course. The only negative one can pose is that the genetics are "swarmy", but that is the normal nature of honeybees and I would err on the side of having strong hives that swarm than hives that don't survive. Just keep an eye on it and be prepared to give them a queen if the mating process does not work out.

efmesch · « **Reply #6 on:** June 25, 2018, 12:21:32 pm »

My personal feelings lean toward the following course of action.
1. remove the old queen from the first swarm you collected and introduce one of the queen cells (after a day of queenlessness) from those in the original hive. Queen cells raised in preparation for swarming are usually top quality. This should leave you with three hives with young (as yet virgin) queens. They should give you vigorous queens to lead your families for this season.
2. Decide if you want to have two or three hives to care for. If three, continue to manage all your hives normally but remove the extra queen cells from the original hive---they might encourage further swarming from that hive and simply make it too weak to be of any good. If two, decide which two of your present three you want to keep and merge the two weakest hives into one (using the "paper method"), making sure that you have eliminated the extraneous queen.