# lost a swarm, what now?



## 3mile honey (Feb 22, 2016)

Last week I guess I missed all the signs and my hive swarmed. I though the ladies were fine and happy since they had been "bearding" out front. I'm a little confused because they swarmed to a nearby tree. A short time later, they all returned to the front of the hive and stayed there all night. The next day when I got home from work, they were gone (never to return). 

I have two questions; The first is, is that normal or what?

Second question, I checked the hive and have found 4-5 queens cells. I went over the hive twice trying to find a queen with no luck. Do or should I just wait. I though that since I have so many queen cells and a hive large enough, maybe I could make a spilt, or two (BIG hive, almost 30 built out comb with a lot of honey).


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

You won't have a queen in the hive right now, because she left with the swarm.

Bees that beard, leave and then return are just practicing - they are almost certain to swarm in the 24 hours. You missed your chance to deal with them before they skedaddled.

Yes, you can pull off a frame with some capped queen cells, capped brood, shakes of nurse bees, etc. to make a split.

I find that a Snelgrove board is the easiest way to do this. Other people will give you good advice about making up a nuc, which also works. Having a second colony started not only adds a colony to your apiary but is a back-up in case the new queen in the main colony meets with some mishap during her mating flights.

Or you can just reduce the number of queen cells down two, or three, and let the bees get on with it which they will do with great efficiency. You should either do a split or reduce the number of QCs to forestall the bees making even more swarms after the first one.

I would do the split, or cull the cells iin the next day or so, and then stay out of the hive for at least three,preferrably four weeks. This is particularly important towards the the end of this period as it is easy to disturb a virgin or new queen. Let her get hatched, hardened, mated and back in business before you go poking around. Use Micheal Bush's Bee Math chart to understand what's going on inside. Be patient! (Hopefully you weren't planning on treating during this period.)

The remaining colony from the original hive and any splits you make from it need to be watched carefully to make sure they build up into strong colonies. Depending on your flows, they may need to be fed. Watch for robbing issues. Do not install a robbing screen for the first time during the period when the queen(s) may be out getting mated, though!

You may have lost your chance for a honey crop this year because of the swarm, but at the same time you now have a chance to learn about making up a new queen, and your bees will have a short brood break. And now you know why beekeepers put so much effort into deterring swarming.

Enj.


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## 3mile honey (Feb 22, 2016)

A ton of information. thank. I appreciate your time.


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## Chuck Jachens (Feb 22, 2016)

I would split the queen cells up into 2 to 4 nucs. Depends on if you can handle 4 new hives and you have enough bees left to populate those nucs. you can shake an extra frame of bees from another hive.

Is there evidence that drones are present, this will greatly impact your odds of any queen successfully mating. It expansion model beekeeping. At least you will have 4 chances of a sucessful mating rather than just one.

If you are very successful then you can always recombine two hives and keep the best queen. Good luck


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## whiskers (Aug 28, 2011)

Every thing above plus this-
If the chance that a queen is unsuccessful mating is 1/4, reading here leads me to believe that's close to the right probability, then the rules of statistics say that if you send two out to mate then the chance of total failure is 1/4 times 1/4 or 1/16. Further additions keep quartering the chance of total failure so send out as many as you can then recombine the failures (or buy them queens).
Bill


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## 3mile honey (Feb 22, 2016)

Good evening. I'm looking for a German hive smoker to use during my hive inspections. Anyone have an idea where to buy one. I learned of them from watching the YouTube series on skep beehives from the 70's. thanks


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## dynemd (Aug 27, 2013)

You can find a Rauchboy on Beethinking
http://www.beethinking.com/products/rauchboy-smoker


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