Swarming

[Gscot]

With the wet weather recently I never bothered to check the hives for the last 7 days. Went in today although it was raining. I found 3 sealed queen cells The hive has not swarmed. I removed the Queen cells My question is "Will the hive still swarm within the next few days or when the weather improves?"

[Jon]

I take it you saw the queen if you are sure it has not swarmed already.
If it has sealed queen cells and has not yet swarmed you need to do an artificial swarm as soon as possible as a natural swarm is imminent.
A blink of sunshine is the only trigger they need.
Even when you remove all the queen cells, they can use a 2 day old larva, seal its cell 3 days later and swarm.
the other possibility if only 3 cells were present is supersedure but some colonies will swarm on supersedure cells anyway.

[Gscot]

Did not find the queen (thats my problem I can never find the queen)But i'm sure its not swarmed too many bees in the hive.
Thats a great help Jon as I can see i'll have to try an artificial swarm( never tried one yet)
If I can find the queen and remove it to form another hive will this prevent the original hive from swarming

[Jon]

Hi
Could you tell the difference between a colony with 30,000 bees and one with 20,000 bees?
If you are not 100% confident, your hive could have already swarmed.
A colony can have over 1000 new bees emerging per day so soon looks full again after a swarm.
If the queen is still there, removing her with a few frames of bees and brood to a nuc will prevent a swarm for a week or so but the first virgin to emerge will likely leave with a swarm.

I would never remove queen cells without knowing where the queen is.
If the colony has already swarmed you are taking away the possibility of it making a new queen.
Did you see eggs or larvae less than 1 day old.

If the queen is still there, finding her gives you a better range of options.
If you have not already read it, check out this document (http://www.wbka.com/pdf/a012queencells.pdf) about diagnosing colonies which have swarmed or have queen cells.

[Gscot]

The rain was hammering down I could'nt spent much time in the hive . I kept the frame with the Queen cells with a few hundred bees in a nuc and sealed it with feed. The weather has been nasty and I dont think it has Swarmed But not 100% sure.As you say" 20,000 30,000 not much difference to the untrained eye. If it has swarmed would it be O.K. to replace the frame with the Queen cells in the next week

[Jon]

Hi.
You can't really remove queen cells like you did unless they are within 48 hours of queen emergence.
The 4 days after a cell is sealed the larvae is pupating and is very delicate.
Any chilling at all damages the developing queen.
Even in an apidea a few hundred bees cannot maintain a recently capped cell at the correct temperature.

You best bet is to check the main hive again asap. Look for eggs, in which case your queen is likely still present and also check for any new queen cells started. If no queen is present make sure to leave a cell.
Did you notice eggs or small larvae during the last inspection?

[Gscot]

Did notice small larvae but did,nt take the time to check for eggs Thanks for this information Jon I can see I,ve a lot to learn

[Jon]

I should be avoiding the threads on swarming as I am out of the country so mine could be constructing cells as we speak!

[Adam]

As Jon says, if there are sealed queencells, there's a good chance that the queen has gone already. If the queencells are on a frame and now in a nuc; with sufficient bees there's a fair chance that they will be OK. The presence of eggs means that the queen was there within the past 3 days. The bees can make queens from eggs and very small larvae. Anything older and the queen will be poor or they can't make anything at all and the colony is then described as hopelessly queenless. Sometimes the queen stops laying a few days before swarming. If you see the queen, open or sealed queencells and no eggs, they they are ready to fly!