Friday 8th May, 2020.

Hive 3 - new queen (Buckfast)

I shouldn't have opened Hive 3 to check on the progress of introducing the new queen. If a beekeeper disturbs the hive, it can lessen the chances of a new queen being accepted. The new queen bee was alive, appeared to be laying (there were new eggs in cells), and had attendant bees, this does not mean she/it was fully accepted. I have read, the bees may allow the queen bee to lay eggs for a short while, kill her, and then use the eggs she has laid to raise another queen. So why did I intrude on this precarious process?

Another swarm emanated from the apiary on Friday 8th May. It left to cluster at 10.30am. Which hive/colony swarmed? I was slightly baffled. The swarm was large (shown below) and it clustered in a hedge about 20m from the apiary. I decided I could not take the swarm and put it back in the apiary so, after several phone calls, I arranged for another beekeeper to come and collect it and take it away. I secured the site and decided to do an emergency inspection of the hives.

The apiary consists of, Hive 1, Hive 2, Hive 3, and a nucleus.

The nucleus, Hive 2 and 3, were queenright - a marked queen was present in each. By elimination, this meant the swarm had emanated from Hive1. Hive 1 was a brood hive, part of a Pagden's artificial swarm process I started on the 19th of April. The two queen cells left in the brood hive were sealed (by the bees) on the 22nd of April (Day 8 or 9 in the developmental cycle of a queen bee). The virgin queens should emerge on Day 16 in the cycle - the 30th of April/1st of May in this hive.

The first virgin queen bee to emerge, might seek out sealed queen cells and sting them to kill the developing queens inside - so that one queen bee remains. She will then be ready to mature, mate, and resume the reproductive role in the colony. Successful mating might be achieved by Day 26-28 (three days - 11th/12th/13th May). The mated queen bee may start laying eggs a day or so after finishing mating. This is the received information/knowledge I am trying to base my understanding and practice on.

Two or more virgin queens may emerge simultaneously, seek each other out and, fight to the death until one remains.

A virgin queen may emerge and swarm - as part of a cast swarm - having detected the presence of sealed queen cells. I think the behaviour/responses of the brood worker bees play a significant role in determining the reactions of the queen bee.

I expected swarming reactions or responses to occur on or around the 1st of May - if they were going to happen.

Swarm - 8/5/20

Pictured above is a virgin queen bee - how old is she/it?

Pictured below (centre) is a queen bee cell, from which a queen has emerged.

So what happened - to lead to the swarm on 8th May?