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British Beekeepers Association Official Forum 

  • Swarm and emergency cells

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #11051  by Dolly
 02 Jun 2021, 08:55
Oh dear so one of my hives swarmed,
My fault I know mis read the signs thinking it was a supersede cell
Anyway when I went in,lots of queen cells removed all but two ,one has since opened ,and thinking that when the other one hatches that one queen will kill her sister.
So maybe I should have left them alone but was feeling rather concerned about this hive so when I checked again they had started making emergency cells ,about 8 that I could see.So removed these and left the one remaining sealed cell just in case .
Also caught the swarm which actually the other bee keeper who came to help thought was a cast and have re lived them.Unfortunately I made the mistake of feeding them and am now worried they will take off again .
I have heard that introducing a frame of open brood will help them stay put what is the general opinion on this .
Any advise please :!:
 #11052  by AdamD
 02 Jun 2021, 10:14
For a caught swarm, put a queen excluder under the brood box for a few days and then they should stay. This is particularly beneficial if all you have is foundation for them. (Ensure that a plastic excluder doesn't sag at the entrance and allow the queen out).
A mated queen should start to lay after 2 or 3 days. If you don't have eggs after that time, then there is a good chance you have a virgin in there so the queen excluder can be removed. Bees don't like leaving brood so you could always add a frame at that time from the 'parent' colony.

For the parent colony, the 'books' say to remove all swarm cells apart from one open one (with a visible larva in royal jelly). In this way you know you have 8 days before she emerges, so there is time to remove any emergency cells before she does, otherwise you risk her leaving with a cast and an emergency queen taking over the much-weakened colony.