# Swarm?



## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

What's next is to take the tape off immediately. Unless of course you like a nuc full of dead bees. 
No need to feed your hives. Have you checked to see of there is ample room for the queen to lay in your hives?


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## Bees of SC (Apr 12, 2013)

Find out where your Queen is or if you still have one--If you don't have a queen you did OK-If you SEE the Queen put HER in the nuc with out the queen cells-split the queen cells in two hives.= if you saw the Queen, you may have 3 hives now. If you DON'T see the Queen you may have 2 hives. 
My opinion!! It works for me..


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

In order to manage your hive you first need to know what is going on. What you have done may be a good thing, then it may also be bad. depending on the state of your hive. 
You should always base decisions on situation, and information. First you need to confirm weather or not the main hive has a queen. If so them the bees are planning a swarm, or supercedure. If a queen is present cell location can offer a clue as to their intent. If on the bottom of the frame in a crowded hive with a queen with ample eggs and good pattern. Then it is most likely swarming they are thinking of. If the cells are in the frame and the queen is missing, or the pattern is spotty and or poor then I would suspect supercedure, either emergency, or regular. The reason for needing to know the difference is because the action I would choose is different. 

In the case of supercedure if the hive has a lot of bees what you did may work out for you and you could end up with an additional hive. However if the numbers are below average then during the queen rearing process you could wind up with two week hives, Combining them later is always an option. However, small number of bees build much slower then do large number hives. 

If swarming is their intention, then you did nothing to prevent it. you have a hive with reduced numbers, that will likely swarm anyway. The split will work through, but the main hive will swarm. You should have left the cells in the main hive and taken the brood, stores, plenty of bees and the queen and placed her in the split. this would make the main hive think it had already swarmed. you would still have a risk of after swarming but it will be reduced.


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## MichaelPaul (Jun 13, 2014)

The nuc box has three ventilation holes and honey... I took the tape off in the morning and the bees seemed fine. I did not check to see if the queen cells have hatched.

The main hive had room for the queen to lay. Both hive bodies have bees on all the frames, but they have not started drawing comb on the first super. I removed the queen excluder to see if more bees will move up and start drawing comb.

Regarding feeding, I was under the impression that bees will only feed when needed.

Thanks for the feedback!


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## MichaelPaul (Jun 13, 2014)

I need to get more hive boxes  My original queen was marked and did an amazing job. I was hard for me to find her because there were so many bees. I will try to go through again on Sunday or Monday.


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## MichaelPaul (Jun 13, 2014)

The queen cells were in the bottom hive body. A couple were in the middle of the frames and a couple were at the bottom. The hive has a lot of bees and I couldn't find the queen. I will try to go through again on my next off day. Could she have been in the swarm I put in the nuc box? When should I go through the nuc box again without bothering the bees?

Thank you all for the input and feedback!

Much Appreciated!


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

Old wives tale about feeding the bees and only taking it when they need it IMO. They will store whatever they can get until it's gone. Swarms I leave alone for at least a week, two if I can stand the wait.
It is very possible the old queen is in the swarm. That's what usually happens.


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## MichaelPaul (Jun 13, 2014)

Thanks Mr. Beeman!


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