Our bees swarmed on April 14, ten days after we added a honey super and queen excluder. The bees swirled, coalesced, and gathered in our Katsura before heading off into the afternoon sun. Way too high for us to capture. It was very exciting and we were very sad to see them go.
The bees had drawn out about half a frame in the honey super we had added, but it was obvious from the number of bees below the excluder that it was really slowing things down.
Note to self: with two deeps of brood-skip the excluders.
Two days post-swarm I did a midday inspection 58F and found the hive surprisingly dense with worker bees. I ended up not making a complete inspection of all frames after I encountered a frame with queen cells. There were two frames of capped drone brood and one of worker brood, honey and pollen in the end frames. Was the hive honey-bound? Maybe. Definitely full to the brim with bees.
Queen cells: attempting to pull out the fifth frame I found it was really stuck to the bottom, i.e burr comb connecting it to the lower box, and I accidentally uncapped three of the Queen cells (see photo below). This left three Queen cells stuck to the bottom of the frame and three on the top bar of first brood box. The three lower queen cell caps were slightly damaged, with caps torn, but it looked like the workers were already patching things up. In the unstuck frame, there were at least three Queen cells and they looked intact.
What to do now?
I decided to to make a split and moved the second brood box from hive 1 to create the lower box for hive 2. I then placed the Queen cell frame in a second box surrounded by three frames of capped brood and six of drawn comb with honey and pollen on the edges. Hive 1 kept it's original lower brood box and received a second brood box with drawn out comb. The Queen cells are in the center of both hives.
Checking this morning, hive 2 had removed three unfinished pupae and dumped them outside, hopefully not all their queens! There was action in both hives with orientation flights, though more with Hive 1.
The bees had drawn out about half a frame in the honey super we had added, but it was obvious from the number of bees below the excluder that it was really slowing things down.
Note to self: with two deeps of brood-skip the excluders.
Two days post-swarm I did a midday inspection 58F and found the hive surprisingly dense with worker bees. I ended up not making a complete inspection of all frames after I encountered a frame with queen cells. There were two frames of capped drone brood and one of worker brood, honey and pollen in the end frames. Was the hive honey-bound? Maybe. Definitely full to the brim with bees.
Queen cells: attempting to pull out the fifth frame I found it was really stuck to the bottom, i.e burr comb connecting it to the lower box, and I accidentally uncapped three of the Queen cells (see photo below). This left three Queen cells stuck to the bottom of the frame and three on the top bar of first brood box. The three lower queen cell caps were slightly damaged, with caps torn, but it looked like the workers were already patching things up. In the unstuck frame, there were at least three Queen cells and they looked intact.
What to do now?
I decided to to make a split and moved the second brood box from hive 1 to create the lower box for hive 2. I then placed the Queen cell frame in a second box surrounded by three frames of capped brood and six of drawn comb with honey and pollen on the edges. Hive 1 kept it's original lower brood box and received a second brood box with drawn out comb. The Queen cells are in the center of both hives.
Checking this morning, hive 2 had removed three unfinished pupae and dumped them outside, hopefully not all their queens! There was action in both hives with orientation flights, though more with Hive 1.
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Guessing this queen pupae is 12 days old; that would mean that our hive swarmed the day after they capped the ten queen cells. A queen needs 5-6 days to mature after emerging, then 1-2 days for mating, then another 2-3 days before she starts laying eggs.
Our queens should emerge on the 20th; evidence of success will be visible 10 days to two weeks later, the beginning of May.
Our queens should emerge on the 20th; evidence of success will be visible 10 days to two weeks later, the beginning of May.
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