Hive 1 has finally noticed that it didn’t have a queen and has built some queen cells. Now to wait for her to hatch, mate and start laying. Finger Crossed.

Hive 3 however is up to no god. As feared, the queen seems to have flown off with half the colony despite the fact that there were no queen cells and no signs of swarming. Somehow, the artificial swarm which is supposed to prevent swarming has has the opposite effect. They weren’t thinking of swarming beforehand but performing the artificial swarm seems to have encouraged them to swarm and off she went with half the bees. The problem is she left behind her no queen cells and last time I looked there wasn’t any new queen cells being built. I’ve now given them a frame with a queen cell from Hive 1. So they are in the same situation as Hive 1 now. They have a sealed Queen Cell and we are waiting for her to hatch, mate and start laying.

Al.

I guess so, although there were a few practice queen cups so I thought they were about to swarm. With the weather the way it was they seem to be able to swarm in a few days somehow so we have to get in there quick if we don’t want to lose them!

I’ll take another look in a day or two to see what they are up to.

Al.