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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #7741  by Liam
 13 Jun 2020, 14:54
ok the basics:

*split recently for swarm control.
*left two queen cells, made new hive with old queen (doing well)
*weather was bad and didnt get a chance to check them.
*They had made two other queen cells that I found today.
*Today (two days late due to weather) I was going to check for the new queen and knock down cells if they didnt do it natrually.
They had done two cast swarms with virgin queens.
Originally i didnt notice they had done two cast swarms, so I got one cast swarm and re-united with the colony using newspaper. This colony is obvioulsy queenless and no queen cells now, so hopefully they will accept the queen in the cast.
On my way back to the car I found another cast swarm (i knew there should be two as i found two opened queen cells in the main hive) These guys I just put a nuc by them and they marched right in with the queen.

This is my first year, forgive me, I am learning and it does seem I have hit every situation possible in my first year :(.

Thoughts? did I do ok or total diaster lol
 #7742  by NigelP
 13 Jun 2020, 16:48
Sounds like you did fine Liam.
Finding 2 cast swarms is quite observant.
I think one of my hives may have produced several cast swarms that I never found. I found a frame with what must have been close to 9 opened queen cells.....where the hell did they come from!!! Or how the hell did I miss all of these......
Keeps you on your toes does this game.
 #7743  by Liam
 13 Jun 2020, 17:08
9 wow, shame to lose so many bees. Bees urge to spread genes is just amazing, especically when they have lovley homes, full of stores that cost £300 lol.

Hopefully they will settle down and build up some for the winter.
 #7744  by Steve 1972
 13 Jun 2020, 17:26
Liam wrote:
13 Jun 2020, 17:08
9 wow, shame to lose so many bees. Bees urge to spread genes is just amazing, especically when they have lovley homes, full of stores that cost £300 lol.

Hopefully they will settle down and build up some for the winter.
Ungrateful little beggars ain't they..you are not alone with missing Queen cells..this is the worst year i have had to date with hidden impossible to find Queen cells...one hive took two cast swarms a fortnight ago and another took one..
 #7747  by Liam
 13 Jun 2020, 20:52
I have struggled from the start as my nuc came with swarm cells :( , really bad start for a beginner. I transferred them to the hive and they lasted 3 weeks before building queen cells again :cry: I split them and have kept the original queen in a new hive and she is doing just fine. My original hive just won’t give up and refuse to just re-queen themself without casting lol. I had read so much about cast swarms but also letting bees decide and letting them kill queen cells when they hatch. Lesson learnt, I will be removing all queen cells apart from one next time and if that queen cell fails for some reason I will re-queen.
 #7789  by Liam
 16 Jun 2020, 14:51
Just an update to this, incase anyone has a similar situation and googles this, its nice to know the outcome:

The re-unite with the cast swarm, including the queen, put into a empty super, divided by newspaper, on top of the original hive brood box that was queenless and no queen cells worked. It took them about 2 days to break through and because of the cast swarming they had emptied all stores, which they re-fill in a day. The hive is now extremely active with bees coming and going :)

Its amazing how fast bees build when they have cast swarmed, the Nuc already has drawn out frames and stores in just a few days. The nuc was where I put my secondary cast swarm I found with queen as my back-up plan. Fingers crossed both virgin queens get mated so I can get back on track.