What do you do when an aborted swarm returns to the colony? The answer depends. Join me as we figure out what to do with this colony. 🙂 #beekeeping #bees #swarms #honeybees
Awesome news about going to Kent’s!! We’ve wanted to go every since we’ve seen him do a talk in Louisiana 5 years ago and he told us about it, but just haven’t been able to make it yet!! We do know several people that have been and say it’s a blast! Can’t wait to see your videos and pics!! Hope you’re able to catch this swarm when it goes!!
Thank you! It was an absolute awesome time! I loved every minute of it. I could listen to Kent talk for hours. A wealth of knowledge and information. He’s such a great resource; I can’t wait to go back. Stay tuned as I will be posting video soon. I took over 80 gigs of video. Haha! There’s very little of him on UA-cam so I hope people will find it good and useful. Cheers!
@@jerryb6585Not to my knowledge. He keeps a pretty low profile online. He’s not on UA-cam or Facebook. You might be able to get ahold of him through the local bee club there, Lake Barkley.
My observations/critique. If you have lots of fresh eggs on frames in worker cells (I couldn’t see what you were seeing), then the hive is not swarming. Here is how the swarming process works. Bees put the mother queen on a diet to thin her down, so she can fly. Because of this (less nutrition, the queen slows down on laying eggs and usually stops completely. I personally have never ever seen eggs or very little in a hive that is about to swarm or has already swarmed. When a swarm does a “fake punt” from the hive, it usually means the queen never left the hive. The bees get all excited, started exiting the hive, but they never could get the queen out. So, they end up returning to try again the next day. Did you ever think that maybe there could be a queen out on a mating flight and the bees are waiting for her return? Bees returning from a mating flight look like a swarm coming to the hive. Just a side note, why shake the bees off the inner cover, it just causes more disturbance and gets bees angry. Why not just leave them on it, and set it to the side? Why would they be swarming? They still have three frames three not drawn. They still have room. Bees prefer to go up rather than sideways. A 5 frame nuc stacked two high (10 frames) will draw frames faster than a 10 frame single deep. Just because bees prefer to go up. Yes, it’s another subtle aspect of running single 10 frame deeps. With the weather as warm as it is, I would have checkerboarded those three partially drawn frames further in to help get the bees to work them. All bee brushes are not created equally. The type you want, are the ones that have the holes in the wood angled towards each other. This results in the bristles in a thin single line at the tips of the bristles. This prevents bees from getting trapped between the bristles. You’re wasting your time putting honey supers on that hive. The population is going to decrease until you have new bees emerging from cells, which is about a month away. There really weren’t that many bees in that hive. My guess from everything I saw, was that the mother queen already swarmed with half the bees. I don’t know if you had any capped queen cells left in it, or if all the virgins had already chewed out. Sounded like they all had chewed out. In that case, most likely either they are trying to perform a cast swarm, or you have a queen coming in from a mating flight. Because you didn’t see any queens in the hive, I would suspect the latter. One more thing, please put some thin latex gloves on. Getting stung 3 times during a simple inspection warrants it.
"Did you ever think that maybe there could be a queen out on a mating flight and the bees are waiting for her return? Bees returning from a mating flight look like a swarm coming to the hive." This is exactly what happened! I have a follow-up video I will be posting soon on this colony. I found an (I believe) mated queen on the front returning from her flight. I believe this colony had already swarmed based on an inspection I did a few weeks prior. I was very certain this colony was in the process of requeening itself. And I agree 100% on bees going up vs out. My resource hive will have stacked 5 frames nucs and they definitely draw faster. Checkerboarding with single deeps can help some. Also, I figured as much with the honey super. But if I can even get them to draw out some frames for me that would be a plus. It doesn't hurt much leaving one on. And while stings aren't fun, they don't bother me too much. It's actually good to get stung occasionally if you are exposed to bee venom as all beeks are. There's some studies out there showing that you can have a more severe reaction to a bee sting if you are around bees, rarely get stung, and then get stung after a long period of time. I've also been stung through the latex/nitrile gloves. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Split it, drop the ones on the outside into a box of comb and then move it, then go back and go through that box again looking for the queen and catch her and move her to the box you moved, and you should be good, unless you want to steal a frame of brood and bees from a really strong colony ( letting them set in a brood moving box for a few hours before putting on the other hive ).
Brush them into a nuc box. I caught 2 of my colonies swarming off the front door. The easiest swarm to catch ever. If there is no queen they will leave the box.
That's a weird one. If there were eggs freshly laid I'm surprised she could fly, but you said there were queen cells in there too. Have fun at Kent's place. You'll have to ask him about the "Kent Williams" hive tool.
Upside is, you can't do much to make the situation worse. I'd likely do a Pagden split, separating the flying and nurse bees, then just see what happens. At least then you would decrease the number of bees in that box, so you might be able to make a decision about their queen situation. Or, you could split the box into 3 or 4, and see what happens. At least that way you might not loose any. Judging by the number of bees, doesn't look like there's been a swarm yet.
If the hive is getting ready to swarm, why put a queen excluder on it? If you are giving they more room to grow. I'm new to bee keeping and trying to learn.
Hello! I have a follow up video to this one I will post soon. It turns out this was NOT an aborted swarm and was actually a queen returning from her mating flight and missed her landing I found her today and placed her in the hive. The queen excluder is on the hive to prevent a mated queen from returning and going up into the supers. Stay tuned for the future video and thanks for watching!
@beesintheweeds if that is the case you have witnessed something truly rare. The virgin flys out to mate about 7 days after emergence. That means she and the colony allowed the queen to live and continue to lay. I've often wondered why bees don't do it that way by design.
@@rtxhoneybees I believe this colony already swarmed and the mated queen (red dot) was gone. I say that because I inspected this colony 1-2 weeks before this occurance and they were queenless. No eggs or young larvae in the comb. The queen I found on the front of the hive in the cluster was not marked and appeared newly mated although I can't be 100%. I put a green dot on her and dropped her into the hive and they accepted her.
In the video you said you saw eggs. No way a virgin could return from a mating flight with eggs in the colony unless the laying queen was in there at least three days prior. The minimum emergence to flight time is 5 days but it's usually 7.
@@rtxhoneybees So I was going to discuss this on a future video but this colony had multiple queens. I found (I believe) a mated queen on the front (marked her green) and I then did an inspection and found a mated queen inside that the bees were balling. I saved her and marked her green. I then did a direct introduction of the queen that landed on the front and the bees fed her and accepted her. I believe the bees were in the process of choosing which queen would be their queen. Colonies will send a virgin on a mating flight while still being queenright in a hive. I heard Kent Williams talk about it last week when I was at his school. They then ball the old queen after the virgin successfully mates and makes it back alive. Insurance policy.
Awesome news about going to Kent’s!! We’ve wanted to go every since we’ve seen him do a talk in Louisiana 5 years ago and he told us about it, but just haven’t been able to make it yet!! We do know several people that have been and say it’s a blast! Can’t wait to see your videos and pics!!
Hope you’re able to catch this swarm when it goes!!
Thank you! It was an absolute awesome time! I loved every minute of it. I could listen to Kent talk for hours. A wealth of knowledge and information. He’s such a great resource; I can’t wait to go back. Stay tuned as I will be posting video soon. I took over 80 gigs of video. Haha! There’s very little of him on UA-cam so I hope people will find it good and useful. Cheers!
Does this Kent guy have a web address in Ringgold, KY? How do I get info on his bee business? Thanks
@@jerryb6585Not to my knowledge. He keeps a pretty low profile online. He’s not on UA-cam or Facebook. You might be able to get ahold of him through the local bee club there, Lake Barkley.
My observations/critique.
If you have lots of fresh eggs on frames in worker cells (I couldn’t see what you were seeing), then the hive is not swarming. Here is how the swarming process works. Bees put the mother queen on a diet to thin her down, so she can fly. Because of this (less nutrition, the queen slows down on laying eggs and usually stops completely. I personally have never ever seen eggs or very little in a hive that is about to swarm or has already swarmed.
When a swarm does a “fake punt” from the hive, it usually means the queen never left the hive. The bees get all excited, started exiting the hive, but they never could get the queen out. So, they end up returning to try again the next day.
Did you ever think that maybe there could be a queen out on a mating flight and the bees are waiting for her return? Bees returning from a mating flight look like a swarm coming to the hive.
Just a side note, why shake the bees off the inner cover, it just causes more disturbance and gets bees angry. Why not just leave them on it, and set it to the side?
Why would they be swarming? They still have three frames three not drawn. They still have room. Bees prefer to go up rather than sideways. A 5 frame nuc stacked two high (10 frames) will draw frames faster than a 10 frame single deep. Just because bees prefer to go up. Yes, it’s another subtle aspect of running single 10 frame deeps.
With the weather as warm as it is, I would have checkerboarded those three partially drawn frames further in to help get the bees to work them.
All bee brushes are not created equally. The type you want, are the ones that have the holes in the wood angled towards each other. This results in the bristles in a thin single line at the tips of the bristles. This prevents bees from getting trapped between the bristles.
You’re wasting your time putting honey supers on that hive. The population is going to decrease until you have new bees emerging from cells, which is about a month away.
There really weren’t that many bees in that hive. My guess from everything I saw, was that the mother queen already swarmed with half the bees. I don’t know if you had any capped queen cells left in it, or if all the virgins had already chewed out. Sounded like they all had chewed out. In that case, most likely either they are trying to perform a cast swarm, or you have a queen coming in from a mating flight. Because you didn’t see any queens in the hive, I would suspect the latter.
One more thing, please put some thin latex gloves on. Getting stung 3 times during a simple inspection warrants it.
"Did you ever think that maybe there could be a queen out on a mating flight and the bees are waiting for her return? Bees returning from a mating flight look like a swarm coming to the hive." This is exactly what happened! I have a follow-up video I will be posting soon on this colony. I found an (I believe) mated queen on the front returning from her flight.
I believe this colony had already swarmed based on an inspection I did a few weeks prior. I was very certain this colony was in the process of requeening itself.
And I agree 100% on bees going up vs out. My resource hive will have stacked 5 frames nucs and they definitely draw faster. Checkerboarding with single deeps can help some.
Also, I figured as much with the honey super. But if I can even get them to draw out some frames for me that would be a plus. It doesn't hurt much leaving one on.
And while stings aren't fun, they don't bother me too much. It's actually good to get stung occasionally if you are exposed to bee venom as all beeks are. There's some studies out there showing that you can have a more severe reaction to a bee sting if you are around bees, rarely get stung, and then get stung after a long period of time. I've also been stung through the latex/nitrile gloves.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
@@beesintheweeds awesome! Good news! I've only gotten stung once so far this season! Now watch, I'll get lit up next time I go out!
Split it, drop the ones on the outside into a box of comb and then move it, then go back and go through that box again looking for the queen and catch her and move her to the box you moved, and you should be good, unless you want to steal a frame of brood and bees from a really strong colony ( letting them set in a brood moving box for a few hours before putting on the other hive ).
Brush them into a nuc box. I caught 2 of my colonies swarming off the front door. The easiest swarm to catch ever. If there is no queen they will leave the box.
Good tip!
The first thing I did in my 2nd year was toss all my bee brushes in the trash.
🤣🤣👍🏼
OMG! thats the shows i watch! "beekeeping videos" lol. Good luck with that hive!
What do you use in your smoker? It looks like it works very well.
I use a fire starter my dad and I designed along with burlap. Stay tuned for a future video where I will showcase my method. 🙂
👍👍👍👍
That's a weird one. If there were eggs freshly laid I'm surprised she could fly, but you said there were queen cells in there too. Have fun at Kent's place. You'll have to ask him about the "Kent Williams" hive tool.
Kent’s was a blast! Stay tuned for some future video. 😊
Upside is, you can't do much to make the situation worse.
I'd likely do a Pagden split, separating the flying and nurse bees, then just see what happens.
At least then you would decrease the number of bees in that box, so you might be able to make a decision about their queen situation.
Or, you could split the box into 3 or 4, and see what happens. At least that way you might not loose any.
Judging by the number of bees, doesn't look like there's been a swarm yet.
Good tips!
If the hive is getting ready to swarm, why put a queen excluder on it? If you are giving they more room to grow. I'm new to bee keeping and trying to learn.
Hello! I have a follow up video to this one I will post soon. It turns out this was NOT an aborted swarm and was actually a queen returning from her mating flight and missed her landing I found her today and placed her in the hive. The queen excluder is on the hive to prevent a mated queen from returning and going up into the supers. Stay tuned for the future video and thanks for watching!
@beesintheweeds if that is the case you have witnessed something truly rare. The virgin flys out to mate about 7 days after emergence. That means she and the colony allowed the queen to live and continue to lay. I've often wondered why bees don't do it that way by design.
@@rtxhoneybees I believe this colony already swarmed and the mated queen (red dot) was gone. I say that because I inspected this colony 1-2 weeks before this occurance and they were queenless. No eggs or young larvae in the comb. The queen I found on the front of the hive in the cluster was not marked and appeared newly mated although I can't be 100%. I put a green dot on her and dropped her into the hive and they accepted her.
In the video you said you saw eggs. No way a virgin could return from a mating flight with eggs in the colony unless the laying queen was in there at least three days prior. The minimum emergence to flight time is 5 days but it's usually 7.
@@rtxhoneybees So I was going to discuss this on a future video but this colony had multiple queens. I found (I believe) a mated queen on the front (marked her green) and I then did an inspection and found a mated queen inside that the bees were balling. I saved her and marked her green. I then did a direct introduction of the queen that landed on the front and the bees fed her and accepted her. I believe the bees were in the process of choosing which queen would be their queen. Colonies will send a virgin on a mating flight while still being queenright in a hive. I heard Kent Williams talk about it last week when I was at his school. They then ball the old queen after the virgin successfully mates and makes it back alive. Insurance policy.
Add a box of frames
Why didn't you move the bees?
They ended up going back inside on their own. 😊