Monday, July 26, 2004

Lesson #306: Never believe your hive won't swarm..

This hive started out as a split containing four frames of brood and multiple swarm cells. After the virgin queen emerged she laid one batch of brood and quit. I was stumped as to what to do, so I just waited and checked on them on a regular basis hoping they were just honeybound and the queen would start laying again soon. A few weeks pass and I find a Supersedure cell, giving me the indication that the queen had not been well mated therefore they will supersede her, no problem.

I failed to mention that these girls had not drawn out all ten frames of foundation in their first deep, but they were close to drawing out 7 therefore I added a second deep pulling two frames of honey and pollen up top to encourage them to move up and draw out those frames and realize they have plenty of room, just in case those Supersedure cells are swarm cells. Supposedly swarm cells are formed on the bottom of frames and Supersedure cells are drawn out from the sides of the frames about half way up, right???

Wrong... I checked in on them today and they had taken off without my permission. Obviously they did not appreciate the wonderful environment I had provided for them, go figure...

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