BBKA Forum

British Beekeepers Association Official Forum 

  • Swarm cells or supercedure cells?

  • 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
 #3097  by NigelP
 15 May 2019, 06:42
AdamD wrote:
12 May 2019, 09:55

I have one large colony (18 brood) where I have never seen the queen so if they chose to start swarm cells, I can't do the usual techniques. I looked for her yesterday and didn't see her.
Lost my first full swarm in years due to the same . I could not find the queen to clip her.....and of course was working Sunday (National swarm day, 1st warm day after a bout 10 days of cold wet weather) so no inspections for about 10 days. Monday sealed queen cells and reduced bee numbers and no eggs.
However, the top fully capped super was totally empty of bees so was able to remove and harvest. As a new method of clearing bees it's not to be recommended.... :)