Artificial Swarm

So after the hive at Cordwood showed us what can happen when you can't get into a hive regularly, I was particularly keen to get into the Garden Hive. The weather gave us a break on Saturday afternoon and we took the opportunity to inspect them. And there indeed were some small queen cups containing tiny larvae and royal jelly. So, an artificial swarm was the course of action. The only problem was in a very full brood box we had to find the queen- and she wasn't going to make it easy for us.Once through the hive and no luck so back through the frames again- this time I decided to check a frame and put it into a nuc box as I did. On the third frame there she was so I put her in the nuc on her frame. Then text book artificial swarm - new brood box on the original site and old brood with frames and nurse bees moved to one side so the flying bees go back to the old queen. The idea is to persuade the bees they have already swarmed. The frame left with the old queen has to be free of queen cells and I was pretty ruthless in knocking out anything suspicious! Today, Sunday and the hive looks fine, there are bees already taking in pollen and the old brood box now with no flying bees has been moved and given a feed of syrup. Hopefully these bees will raise one of the queen cups, she will hatch and mate. I will leave this hive alone now for probably 3 to 4 weeks unless there is a problem to give the new queen time to get established.


Old hive with brood to one side and new brood box with old queen and flying bees.

 The old hive - the brood with the queen cups and non flying bees will find a temporary home at Cordwood- I am thinking that maybe if successful this hive may be passed on to a new beekeeper as a whole colony. It should have built up well by the time of the summer flow and produce honey later this year.