# Late October Swarm?



## marshmasterpat (Jun 26, 2013)

Buttoned up most my nucs just before Halloween. Had 4 nucs and a queen castle nuc (20 half size frames). These guys were all easy 4 frame of brood a few weeks ago and 3 frames of honey 

Well we went from 30 degrees two days ago to 70 yesterday and the bees were flying like crazy. Except 2 nucs, (a standard one and the queen castle style), these hardly any bees moving. So opened them up and yikes they were nearly vacant. Just a few brood left about 2 frames of bees at most. And each had at least one fresh opened queen cell. Apparently the activity I saw at their entrance before the cold snap was robbing because not much honey left. Not any dead bees to note, just empty nucs. No high mite counts, no sign of excess mites in the comb. Just looks like they swarmed and no sign of a new queen. Would have been in 30s and 40s when she should have been doing mating flights. LOL - not holding my breath on these. Guess those frames go in the freeze as well. 

Guess no bees read the note that winter was here and not a good time to swarm.


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## Rick_ Sprague (Feb 7, 2012)

WE call that bee suicide in Indiana when one swarms late.


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

I had one do me that way as well this year. 5 frame NUC full of stores, plenty of bees, good queen. Got warm for a little while after a cold snap. Activity at the hive looked fine. Went to put on sugar bricks a few days back just for extra insurance, opened up this hive and there were about 10 bees in the hive, no stores, and open queen cells. No sign at all of a swarm during the warm days either. very strange. But even stranger, i'd expected to see signs of robbing out of the hive, torn wax, etc. All very cleanly opened cells. My best guess is that the old queen wasn't up to par, they replaced her, and the virgin didn't like the place so she took her bees and went someplace else. Then they robbed out the hive theirself making me think everything was fine while they held guards at the door. lol.. Gotta love it..


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## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

I caught a swarm in my home yard on the 9th of October. When I checked 5 days later they were storing syrup, but there was no laying activity. By the 19th the queen had started to lay a silver dollar sized pattern on one frame. When the cells were capped they were workers. It will be interesting to see how the queen does this coming spring. I was surprised that she found drones to mate with.


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## marshmasterpat (Jun 26, 2013)

I was wondering if this might a left over gene controlled impulse from AHB that has bee spread among the feral bees from queens getting shipped everywhere. The AHB apparently has a tendency to swarm frequently with no visible reason. 

But basically I am lost with this one :scratch:


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