Finding the Queen, or Not - a follow-up

Better late than never right?

In my previous post you may have recalled we were going on a queen hunt. Well we suited up, scoured the hive and did not find her. What we did find were fewer bees than we had anticipated AND a whole bunch of capped queen cells.

What we think has happened is this: we missed a swarm. We missed the old queen's exit with her share of ladies in waiting. They are probably happily setting up new quarters near by in a hollow tree. What remains in our hive are about half of the bees we started with and new queens waiting to emerge and claim the hive. This sets us back a bit.

The hive was super unfriendly. I took three hits to my finger and a sting up my pants leg (and never mind where that sting ended up at) The day before Kris took a hit from the same hive and had a welt on her leg that Bill described as looking like a veal cutlet.  There was honey in the bottom deep. Not a ton of brood and then the queen cells. Further inspection showed about the same in the second deep and there was little to no activity in the supers.

We decided to check the other hives. Again, no queen, honey capped and uncapped in the deeps and capped queen cells in both. Fantastic. What to do? Once a colony has decided to swarm there is little to do about it. We discussed the clipping of the queen but she may try to fly anyhow and land on the ground and then what? Or if we clip her the hive could decide that she is weak or broken and raise a new queen anyhow and kill her off. Either way we are behind.

I called Les. I wondered if we could buy an empty nuc out. After conferring for 20 mins he suggested that because we had capped honey in the bottom that we were probably having a nectar run. The bees were storing the honey in any empty comb. Since the supers were not drawn out yet they were using the deep. The queen, feeling she was crowded now had quit laying eggs and the hive had decided she was failing sooooo....deep breath...making a replacement.

Complicated this bee psychology.

Kris and Bill went out the next night. Rotated a few frames and now our fingers are crossed. And our toes. And our eyes. All I know for certain at this point is bees will do what bees will do.

Peace,
Karen