Hive 1 - brood frame - Wed' 22nd April 2020.
What do I think I'm looking at in the picture above? I think I am looking at a sealed queen cell at the very bottom corner of the brood frame - the slightly larger shape that curves around the edge of the honeycomb. What do I think is the significance of this? It - the 'sealed queen cell' - could explain why there was a swarm today, from Hive 1, in the apiary of the allotment garden of Nowhere in particular.
On Sunday I started a 'Pagdens Artificial Swarm' - that involved separating the queen bee from the brood bees of a colony preparing to swarm. In short - that queen bee, from Hive 2, was moved to a new hive, Hive 1 - accompanied only by the field/foraging bees returning to the former location of Hive 2 - taken by the new hive, Hive 1. Hive 1 could be referred to as a swarm hive. The queen bee was placed on a frame of brood, from which all other bees were shaken off. If done correctly, that process should have preempted and prevented the natural swarming process. It didn't, therefore, I did something, or somethings, incorrectly.
The mistake I think I made was not examing the brood frame (I put the queen bee on) thoroughly enough. I think I missed a queen cell (or the beginnings of one) on that frame and thus the bees continued drawing out that cell, capped it - and then proceeded to swarm. My misgivings about this explanation include there being no brood bees in the hive initially (on Sunday). It seems that the brood role was adopted quite quickly by some bees, or newly emerged worker bees took on those brood roles very quickly.
Swarm - 22nd April 2020.
There is the swarm, in the centre of the picture above, clustered in a briar patch, close to an allotment path - very nearly the same location as 2 swarms last year. The capture of the swarm involved cutting the bramble stems very carefully so that the cluster of bees lowered slowly towards the ground before being shaken and tapped onto the sheet as a whole (or as much of a whole as possible). It is gratifying to see the bees process into the hive/swarm box so immediately upon landing on the sheet.
That process of carefully coaxing the bees into the box (a nucleus) took about an hour and then another half an hour before I moved the captured swarm back to the apiary.
Swarm hive returned to the apiary
After resettling the swarm I looked inside Hive 1 (to the left of the swarm box) and found the queen cell featured at the head of this post. Provided I have managed successfully to capture the swarm - it might vacate the nucleus box - the apiary consists of 'Swarm'(queenright?), Hive 1 (queenless, with capped queen cell), Hive 2 (queenless, with capped queen cell), Hive 3 (queenright, showing increased early signs of wanting to swarm).
How can I manage this situation? What would be the best course of action to take to prevent unwanted swarms, minimise disturbance of the bees, ensure the safety/confidence of allotment gardeners in the vicinity, reduce the amount of hives/parts needed, and maintain healthy bees? A honey harvest would also be welcome!
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