Part 1: Are An Introduced Queen & A Swarm Related?
I introduce a queen to a colony and a swarm goes over my garden a few hours later. Are these incidents related? I don’t know the answer to this question, yet. I’ll post next week.
The Inspection
I am down to one hive after 2 seasons of weak colonies, wax moths, wasps and lets be honest, some bad beekeeping, so it was with crossed fingers I went to carry out my first inspection of the season.
At first glance all looked good, with bees coming and going … but I could also observe they were not bringing in any/much pollen, which was a worry.
In the hive there were no eggs, larvae or capped brood. This was a big worry! No pollen, but plenty of honey stores. About 6 frames of bees. I found the marked queen. Luckily no cells with multiple eggs, which would have been a sign of Laying Workers.
I assume the queen has stopped laying and I assume there isn’t a virgin queen as there is no brood from which a virgin could have been made in the last few weeks. I assume the Queen is producing enough pheromone to stop bees becoming Laying Workers.
Next Steps
I went online and bought a queen (delivery was going to take about 10 days).
To reduce risk of bees becoming workers, I added a frame of eggs from a friends hive (thanks Carolyn).
Introducing Queen (10 Days Later)
There is some best practice with how to introduce a queen but being (A) not a great beekeeper, (B) time limited (full time job and kids at home under lockdown) and (C) reducing the chance of beekeeper error, I did the minimum. Doing the minimum does reduce the risk of the bees not accepting her … but I calculated this was a lower risk than me losing or injuring the queen.
So, I killed the current queen, removed the plastic tabs from the end of the queen cage and popped the cage into the hive.
I’ll inspect in 7 to 10 days to see if there are eggs or a dead queen.
The Swarm
So, I did all the above in the morning. Three hours later a large swarm went through our front garden, down the cul de sac, over a few neighbours gardens and then seemed to settle in a hole in a tree (high up). Luckily the neighbours found the swarm reduced some of the monotony of lockdown and I shouted out to anyone that would listen that “it wasn’t mine” (probably wasn’t mine would have been more accurate).
I don’t think it was mine for the following reasons:
- Earlier the same day, I had both killed the queen (definitely) and left a queen in a cage which will take a few days to get her out of
- I presume there wasn’t a virgin queen in my hive (I hope)
- I think the swarm was too big (about 15,000 bees by my estimate: 30m long swarm x 10m wide x 5m high, with density of 10 bees per cubic metre – has any one got better ideas of how to estimate a flying swarm size?)
However, I’ll find out when I next inspect and you can find out in Part 2.
There was another swarm the next day, that passed 20m from my house. Starting to get excited about the season. I need more bees, so I’ve ordered some Vita swarm attractant wipes (blog sponsor) and set up a nuc box.
Finally
Hope all going well with the start to your beekeeping seasons.
I also found these little wasp nests in the upstairs window sill. Spring is in full flow.
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Thomas Seeley (inevitably) has looked at swarm densities … I suspect your estimated sizes are out slightly. Seeley’s roughly cylindrical swarm of 11,000 bees had a volume of about 71 cubic metres in flight, so a bit over 150 bees per cubic metre.
However, it’s worth noting that the swarm changes shape in flight … so it’s far from straightforward 😉
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you! But suggest you are prepared when you open the hive just in case the following has happened: A queen can hatch from an emergency queen cell in a little as 12 days from the introduction of a suitable frame. And your bees may have made emergency queen cells from your friend’s frame if they didn’t recognise your non-laying Queen as a queen. And so I guess your timing just about lines up with emergency queens emerging? Even if that has happened, it is a good time of year for a colony to build up with a new queen… Good luck!
Thanks Nick. All the egg cells had been capped with no Queen cups. Just hoping Queen is accepted.
Best of luck with your introduction, if were not naturally optimistic we wouldn’t do it in the first place. That said if you are locally short of early pollen feed a decent pollen based fondant to get her going. With no bee bread the queen will stop laying with my record being six weeks but once she has what the brood needs she will restart with gusto.
On swarm catching I have attracted 2 into a bait box so far this year. Both have been wild as they are clumsy about using a standard entrance. I have put the box back up and it is being scouted again and last year I caught a brilliant swarm in the same place. The box needs to be brood box size, even small swarms opt for this and you can always transfer them into a nuc if they are tiny. The box should be up against or high up on a wall so it appears as part of something with a larger thermal mass. Some old, rotated out brood comb with a dribble of honey for the smell not the feed. A little bakers fondant in the roof. Lemon grass oil around the entrance block and on a cotton bud in the hive body.
Put it in the vicinity of a big feed which has been Apple but is now moving to Sycamore and Hawthorne.
I am lucky enough to have known my wild colonies for years and the tree bees need to find a box with some height, 12 ft plus, while those from the base of their tree or “box babies” will be happy with ground level accommodation.
If your box is repeatedly scouted but passed over then irrespective of how good you think it is, they don’t.
Trapping swarms has compensated for my early and serial incompetence with the added upside being that my feral bees are brutally hygienic, economical and healthy.