I should have split my hive when I was planning on it! When I last suspected I was seeing a swarm cell, I inspected it several days after spotting it and could not find any cells fully built out into swarm cells. This made me question whether they were actually planning to swarm.
But now my queen and half of my bees have left me. I was out of town a week ago and received a call that a cloud of bees was overtop of the house that they are stationed next to. Their swarming was confirmed when I went into the hive to find:
I was kicking myself: shoulda, coulda, woulda. Little did I know that the bees back filling the brood frames with pollen was a telltale sign that they're planning on swarming. They apparently do this to reduce the number of brood the queen can lay so that after they split with her, the honey bees left behind will be able to adequately care for their young. Now I know.
But now my queen and half of my bees have left me. I was out of town a week ago and received a call that a cloud of bees was overtop of the house that they are stationed next to. Their swarming was confirmed when I went into the hive to find:
- all open, uncapped cells formerly containing honey around the fringe of the honey frames were completely empty without a trace of nectar,
- the bees were acting much more aggressive, and
- two of two brood frames inspected had 2-3 swarm cells each.
I was kicking myself: shoulda, coulda, woulda. Little did I know that the bees back filling the brood frames with pollen was a telltale sign that they're planning on swarming. They apparently do this to reduce the number of brood the queen can lay so that after they split with her, the honey bees left behind will be able to adequately care for their young. Now I know.
Losing my queen was a huge bummer... until I got a pick-me-up and received a call about a feral swarm in East Bay!
With help, I dropped these gentle bees into two medium hive boxes and relocated them to a lovely, spacious beeyard in San Anselmo! I checked on them yesterday to make a quick temporary solution to ant-proofing the hive and they seemed to be very active. I'm feeling better about my apiaries not that I have two hives to leave alone for a little while until they get their acts together.