You may recall from our last blog that keeping bees has some challenges. The most important was that bees don’t read the bee books and magazines we do.
Consequently, we had a swarm from a queenless hive; or so we thought! This hive had been opened and frames checked for eggs, lava, and pupa none being found. No queen was seen and the behaviour of the bees suggested they were queenless too.
Our nuc box had a thriving colony that was queenright and laying in stores. However, the nuc has fewer frames than a brood box and overcrowding was a concern. This was the most likely colony to swarm; due to overcrowding. Although no queen cells or cups were evident.
The third colony of bees, swarm from the wooden hive, in the new poly hive was active. On opening this hive 3 days after their introduction no brood was evident.
Did we have only one colony queenright and two queenless? Logic would suggest that this was not true. Why because according to all available information the bees will not swarm without leaving queen cells.
On the advice of an 84year old beekeeper, we just left the bees to “sort themselves out, let nature do its work”
After 7 days we opened the poly hive and eggs, uncapped and capped brood was seen on three frames. The colony was queenright! The bees were quite placid and busy to and from the hive.
The wooden hive was opened the day after the poly hive and again there was no evidence of a queen. The bees were busy and not aggressive but no queen was seen and the brood frames were empty of any queen laying activity.
What to do now? The wooden hive should have had a queen as it had swarmed. Where was she? Was it possible that the original queen was still alive when the swarming occurred? She was marked with a white dot and had clipped wings.
Did the original queen leave the hive and get lost on attempting to fly from the hive? Unlikely, as we had the two separate pairs of queen cells on the brood frames. Also the swarm, in the poly hive, was queenright!
Next blog further problems with our bees