weirdest thing!

[mazza]

I encountered the weirdest thing this week, and wondered if anyone else had seen this before.

While prepping the hives for winter, my bee partner and I found a fourth bee colony we didn't know we had! The varroa floor insert of the third hive wouldn't slide into place, and when we checked underneath to see why we found comb after comb of natural comb hanging down from the mesh floor! A quick check inside the hive revealed the marked queen present and correct, so we moved the 'top' colony onto a new floor and stand and investigated further... Only to find about 8 natural combs, plenty bees, and both brood and eggs!! It appears that at some point back at 'swarming time' a new colony thought that was as good a place as any to set up home - under the mesh floor of another colony!

Is this very unusual, or has anyone else had this happen to them?

[Emma]

I did an artificial swarm this year, with the old broodnest behind and to one side of the old site. The next day I found a swarm cloud round the old nest, and discovered that the old queen and her cluster of bees had deserted the new box I'd given them on the old site, sniffed out the old nest in its new position, and landed under the mesh floor below it. I've no idea what they'd have done if I hadn't found them, but I guess they could have stayed put and built comb.
I thought it was pretty unusual at the time, but your story easily trumps it! :)

[Jon]

Happened me once.

2428

[Emma]

So - both Jon and mazza - was there a second queen with the wild comb below the floor? Or had the queen managed to commute through the entrance?

Lovely bit of wild comb, either way :)

[Jon]

Mine happened years ago. I think the queen went under the floor by mistake after a mating flight but I cant really remember.

[Emma]

Pity, I'd love to know more. That was one of two artificial swarms which I had bouncing back towards the old nest this year.

The second bouncing A.S. waited in their new box for long enough to cram syrup into the two bits of drawn comb I'd given them and lay a tiny patch of eggs. The queen and most of the bees then flew 3 feet or so to the side to find their old nest on its new site. The queen laid eggs there for a while, & then swarmed properly just slightly later than her colony had originally planned.

It was uber confusing. I only figured out the complete story after I found my own clumsily-marked queen in what I'd thought was a cast!

It's also really dented my faith in artificial swarming. Has anyone else observed similar behaviour, & figured out how to persuade the bees not to do it?

[Adam]

I've had a clipped queen or two find their way under the floor - but only for a day or two in my experience and you find a large cluster of bees there. You find that the queenless colony above doesn't behave as if it's queenless due to the pheromone being passed through the mesh floor.

[mazza]

I had a marked queen inside the hive (checked, and she was still there!) and there was an unmarked queen in the 'bottom' colony...

[Emma]

Excellent! That really is properly strange :) I guess they can manage to live with a different queen each side of a gauze after some versions an artificial swarm, so it shouldn't be a surprise that they can set up the same situation themselves. But it does remind me never to assume I've seen it all, when it comes to bee behaviour. (Actually, every season reminds me of that, many times!)
Did you manage to re-home the wild comb bees, with their unmarked queen?

[prakel]

If it's of interest, there's an old example, pre the common usage of mesh floors: Plate 7(b) in Manley's 'Beekeeping in Britain' shows combs built on the front of a hive, hanging from the bottom edge of the roof, it carries this caption:


A very unusual thing. Stray swarm settled and built comb on front of occupied hive, then united to it
R.O.B. Manley 'Beekeeping in Britain' 1948

[mazza]

Excellent! That really is properly strange :) I guess they can manage to live with a different queen each side of a gauze after some versions an artificial swarm, so it shouldn't be a surprise that they can set up the same situation themselves. But it does remind me never to assume I've seen it all, when it comes to bee behaviour. (Actually, every season reminds me of that, many times!)
Did you manage to re-home the wild comb bees, with their unmarked queen?

I didn't I'm afraid :-( Found it the day before going on holiday for a week, and didn't have the equipment or the time to do a transfer. Had to make a quick decision on what to do, and given the lack of time and small size of the 'wild' colony it was with a heavy heart that i found and squished the queen and left the remaining workers out front to reunite with the 'proper' colony. The main colony wasn't huge anyway so would have benefited from the boost in numbers...

[Emma]

I didn't I'm afraid :-( Found it the day before going on holiday for a week, and didn't have the equipment or the time to do a transfer. Had to make a quick decision on what to do, and given the lack of time and small size of the 'wild' colony it was with a heavy heart that i found and squished the queen and left the remaining workers out front to reunite with the 'proper' colony. The main colony wasn't huge anyway so would have benefited from the boost in numbers...

Hmm, sad :( There's never quite enough time to do it all - or enough equipment! Should hopefully have been a painless uniting, anyway...