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NZ Beginner Beekeepers
Re-Queening - understanding the colonies behaviour
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<blockquote data-quote="Alastair" data-source="post: 8324" data-attributes="member: 13"><p>What happens with "practise swarms, is they are not actually a practise, bees don't do that.</p><p></p><p>It means they tried to swarm but the queen was not able to join the swarm, most usually because she can't fly. When the swarm realises it is queenless there is no point continuing and the swarm returns to the hive.</p><p></p><p>Mostly in these cases the queen is killed. If you watch it happening you see the bees chase the queen ever more aggressively in an effort to get her to fly. She will often be eventually worn out and battered to death, the hive ends up queenless.</p><p></p><p>The hive has normally prepared queen cells with baby queens inside before they swarm, and will make another swarm attempt once they hatch.</p><p></p><p>If your hive made a swarm attempt 2 weeks ago, then next time you looked there was no young brood, it means that the queen is gone, most likely because of the swarm attempt. However they would normally have some queen cells prepared, which hatch, and one of them will become the new queen. But first she has to make a mating flight / flights, and it will often be 2 to 3 weeks from when the swarm left until the new queen is laying eggs.</p><p></p><p>So if the normal course of events has been followed in your hive, the new queen the bees made will be about to start laying eggs anytime.</p><p></p><p>However Mummzie is correct, if a hive is queenless and has been for a while, then you introduce a caged queen, the bees will often start vigorous nasanov fanning and the hive can have a "hum". But this effect can also be caused by other reasons such as excessive smoking.</p><p></p><p>So just based on what you have said it is not possible to completely tell what is going on, but your hive should end back up with a queen, either the one they made themselves, or if for some reason that failed, the one you have introduced.</p><p></p><p>For the future and from my own experience, back when I was selling queens I used to get a lot of calls from people whose hives had swarmed, then the person had a look and found the hive had no young brood and looked queenless, so they would order a new queen. I always refused to sell them one, because nearly every time if they just waited the needed time frame for the new queen to start laying eggs, all would be well. I would tell them to get back to me if they could find no brood 4 weeks after the swarm which would mean the new queen failed, then I would sell them one.</p><p>lots of people got back later and said yes the hive had a new queen, and thanked me for not needlessly taking their money.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alastair, post: 8324, member: 13"] What happens with "practise swarms, is they are not actually a practise, bees don't do that. It means they tried to swarm but the queen was not able to join the swarm, most usually because she can't fly. When the swarm realises it is queenless there is no point continuing and the swarm returns to the hive. Mostly in these cases the queen is killed. If you watch it happening you see the bees chase the queen ever more aggressively in an effort to get her to fly. She will often be eventually worn out and battered to death, the hive ends up queenless. The hive has normally prepared queen cells with baby queens inside before they swarm, and will make another swarm attempt once they hatch. If your hive made a swarm attempt 2 weeks ago, then next time you looked there was no young brood, it means that the queen is gone, most likely because of the swarm attempt. However they would normally have some queen cells prepared, which hatch, and one of them will become the new queen. But first she has to make a mating flight / flights, and it will often be 2 to 3 weeks from when the swarm left until the new queen is laying eggs. So if the normal course of events has been followed in your hive, the new queen the bees made will be about to start laying eggs anytime. However Mummzie is correct, if a hive is queenless and has been for a while, then you introduce a caged queen, the bees will often start vigorous nasanov fanning and the hive can have a "hum". But this effect can also be caused by other reasons such as excessive smoking. So just based on what you have said it is not possible to completely tell what is going on, but your hive should end back up with a queen, either the one they made themselves, or if for some reason that failed, the one you have introduced. For the future and from my own experience, back when I was selling queens I used to get a lot of calls from people whose hives had swarmed, then the person had a look and found the hive had no young brood and looked queenless, so they would order a new queen. I always refused to sell them one, because nearly every time if they just waited the needed time frame for the new queen to start laying eggs, all would be well. I would tell them to get back to me if they could find no brood 4 weeks after the swarm which would mean the new queen failed, then I would sell them one. lots of people got back later and said yes the hive had a new queen, and thanked me for not needlessly taking their money. [/QUOTE]
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Re-Queening - understanding the colonies behaviour
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