Signs of swarming

[@noahriding5780]

I liked how you did the quick inspection by looking at the bottom of the box. And you found out so much information so quickly also. Very well done. Thank you.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Velacreations]

This is a very interesting technique for balancing hives. Thank you for sharing!

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

And works very well if done in moderation.

[@russellkoopman3004]

I did my hive inspections today and found one with capped queen cells. Went through the hive twice and could not find the queen. So I took the swarm cells away with 4 frames of capped brood and two shakes of worker bees plus 2 frames with some capped honey (6 frame nuc). In the doner hive I put two undrawn waxed foundation plus two drawn combs to hopefully slow them down. I have two honey supers on top that they are working hard - probably 20 lbs of uncured honey already. Not the best way to do a split but I'm too busy to do much else for the next two weeks. Have fun splitting those strong hives. You're going to have a lot of strong nucs to sell.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

8 out of 20 with open queen cells! ...and I ran out of queens...more coming for Tuesday so hopefully I thinned them enough till then!

[@mitchellcampbell3521]

Nice hives

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Thanks.

[@noahriding5780]

Is it possible that when you have like afternoon practice flying with newbies and when you are comparing that to swarm activity, is there a time difference to how long each would last? And then could you use that time difference measured to help tell the difference between the two? Sometimes with larger activity its hard for me to tell which of those 2 activities are which.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Swarming activity grows VERY quickly with bees appearing to pour like water out of the entyrance. Orientation flights can be impressive and last for perhaps 15 minutes (usually at the same time each day!) but in terms of activity if in ANY doubt it is orientation flights!

[@noahriding5780]

Thank you.

[@bigadg]

What are the big screws for

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Screws were left over after holding the bee cozies from sliding down over the entrance of the over wintered hives. Haven't pulled them all out yet!

[@snoopypeanut8938]

Should you add a capped queen cell even tho u have swarm cells?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

I dont follow the question.

[@russellkoopman3004]

If they have swarm cells they will not accept an outside queen cell most likely. If you destroy all of the swarm cells and the next day introduce a caged mated queen they might accept her.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

@@russellkoopman3004 Yes need to take out out all queen cells And substantially remove their "reason" for swarming by thinning right down.