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  • Queen clipping

  • Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
Beginners forum, ask beekeeping related questions and get help from other experienced beekeepers. Please use the Search Feature please to avoid duplicated threads
 #6301  by Jeskyns
 09 Apr 2020, 15:12
If your queen was clipped and they swarmed but returned to the hive as the queen was missing and you couldn't find her on the ground, would they swarm again once the first virgin hatched (let's say two cells are in the hive)?
If so is it good practise to knock the second queen cell so they stay once shes hatched or will they just keep building cells and swarm?
 #6303  by Steve 1972
 09 Apr 2020, 17:50
Jeskyns wrote:
09 Apr 2020, 15:12
If your queen was clipped and they swarmed but returned to the hive as the queen was missing and you couldn't find her on the ground, would they swarm again once the first virgin hatched (let's say two cells are in the hive)?
If so is it good practise to knock the second queen cell so they stay once shes hatched or will they just keep building cells and swarm?
It depends but most of the time if you have more than one Queen cells the bees will keep throwing cast swarms till only one virgin left..these cast swarms can contain more than one virgin...if your colonies are close to you and you notice them swarming you can easily find the old clipped Queen if she is not in the hive..she will have a small cluster of bees around her somewhere near the hive or even under the hive floor..
The best thing I can suggest is get a good book and have a read up as it is a complex subject hard to cover without typing on the forum till my phone battery runs out..
 #6306  by Patrick
 09 Apr 2020, 21:34
Steve has summed it up well.

The simple answer is if they are in a condition to swarm and you prevent them doing so by rendering the queen unable to go with them, the workers will return and very likely wait for the first cell to hatch and depart on that. After all, in the intervening week maybe another 10,000 emerged workers may have joined the Merry Throng (yes, others will have died off but whatever).

You could just leave one cell but if this was my only colony, I would vertically split it and put a cell in each half or make up a small nucleus as well. You spread bet your risk of not getting at least one mated Queen and sort out the congestion issue that prompted the swarming.
 #6310  by AdamD
 10 Apr 2020, 08:54
I've had conditions as you describe with a lost clipped queen. (You have to walk around the apiary VERY carefully - I've been inches from standing on one!)

With a large colony, leaving 2 cells in the hive is planning to have a swarm.

What I would do is to go through the hive and select one or two good open queencells with the larvae floating in royal jelly. Mark on the frames where they are. I would remove the rest. A week later, the queencells would be sealed and there would almost certainly be more. I would consider using one of the 'original' sealed queencells by putting it in a nuc on it's frame with some shaken in bees and a frame of stores. Close up and put in a cool dark location for 3 days. (Some books say use a cellar, but as most of us don't have one of those, the back of the garage or behind the shed where the sun don't shine is fine). The remaining 'original' queencell would be retained in the hive. All the later - emergency - ones would be destroyed by jolting the bees off the frames first so none are missed. (Don't jolt the frame with the wanted queencell). We would then expect the queen would emerge a few days later and then mate over the next 2 - 3 weeks. If you leave one crummy emergency queencell, the wanted virgin queen will probably swarm leaving the younger queen to take over.
The nuc is your insurance policy.

If you want to have two strongish colonies, you could consider an artificial swarm a week after the attempted swarm, with one queencell on it's frame on the old site which the flying bees will return to and the other queencell remaining in the hive on a new site a few feet away.
 #6311  by AdamD
 10 Apr 2020, 08:57
This is relevant if your colony swarms with a clipped queen.
https://www.bbkaforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=549
 #6314  by Steve 1972
 10 Apr 2020, 09:46
I can not read links from posts ..is this because I am using a mobile phone or am I doing something wrong.. :oops:
 #6316  by NigelP
 10 Apr 2020, 11:12
Alas Steve you need to copy and paste links into your browser on this forum.
They went for cheap free forum software which has it's drawbacks....
You can't even upload pictures to the site, you need to host them elsewhere and provide their url after you click the image icon.