September 8, 2014…Post swarm day 33. There’s a shadow across her face. I hope that’s not a bad sign, but the bee math doesn’t look good for her.
I’ve looked at various charts explaining Bee Math, but I like the way Michael Bush puts it best…”If a hive just swarmed today, how long before the new queen is laying? Assuming this was the primary swarm, it usually leaves the day the first queen cell gets capped. So that means a new queen will emerge in 8 days. That queen may leave with another swarm or the workers may allow her to kill all the others and stay. Assuming she kills all the others (which are staggered in age, so they will emerge at different times if they do afterswarm) then she should be laying most likely two weeks later. So that’s about three weeks give or take a week. (two to four weeks).”
Bee-atrice swarmed a month and two days ago. That makes it 33 days…(well past four weeks) She had built up fast having gotten occupied by a wild swarm only two months prior on June 6, 2014.
July 27, 2014…The most advanced stage of comb building before the swarm on August 7. (I had planned to post a two month update on her strong progress, but she up and swarmed on me)
August 8, 2014…Bee-atrice through the observation window exactly one month ago. This shows how much comb was built in the two months the wild swarm occupied her. This is the day after she had swarmed.
August 8, 2014…Temperature holding steady at 93F…good for brood rearing.
September 8, 2014…And this is today. Doesn’t look like any more comb has been built, The number of bees hasn’t increased, and…
…and this is the awful final sign that things are not going well. 62F (16C) means there are no eggs being laid.
Maybe I’m wrong, but math is math, and the numbers don’t look good for Bee-atrice.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
Hmm… the temperature is the worst indicator for me. But in terms of comb building, it looks like they don’t have space to build any more comb? And I wouldn’t expect the colony to be increasing in size at this time of year, our bees are reducing their brood nest ready for winter.
Is much pollen being brought in?
I took some video of them returning today. There was some pollen going in. I wouldn’t say ‘a lot of pollen’, but definitely some.
Maybe I’ll add the video so you can see.
Well, the pollen is encouraging. Don’t give up hope yet.
If the colony built up quickly there must have been a good queen. If she died recently maybe the calm is the colony making a new queen? Note these thoughts are from a non-bee-keeper! Amelia
The old queen moves on with the swarm. She’s busy making lots of comb in Bee Beard right now. Oooops, that’s not right. She’s not making comb, but the workers are and presumably, she is laying eggs. Since the swarm moved on August 9th, it’s been 31 days, I’m guessing she probably has had some workers emerge by now since they only take 21 days to hatch out, but I should have been looking more closely for them. It’s possible she would have had to wait a few days for the comb to be built before she could start laying.
If I am following you – you think there is still a queen (a new one) in Bee-atrice that took over from the old queen now in Bee Beard?
Your reasoning seems sound to us but we hope you are wrong.
Haha, I’ve been wrong so many times it wouldn’t be anything new. I check the hive (and thermometer) every time I need a break or move the water. I always hope to see the temperature rising, but so far that hasn’t happened yet.
Ouch. Fingers crossed you have a queen but she’s just taking her time. One of my hives is in exactly the same position – it’s been over 4 weeks at this stage (since the QCs hatched) and still no eggs…I feel your pain!
When that wild swarm moved into Bee-atrice June 6, I was anticipating a full year of lots of bees. When they swarmed August 6 (or 7), my heart sank. At least they decided to occupy my other log hive, which seems to be doing well, but the waiting continues for Bee-atrice. Good luck with your queens.
They don’t really build much comb this time of year unless you feed loads so don’t panic. There will be plenty of spare comb with the brood being emerging anyway. The temperature is probably just that the bees are clustering away from the sensor. Remember comb and honey are excellent insulators.
I am at exactly the same point my friend. My bees swarmed at the very beginning of august whilst I was on holiday. When I returned I found some lovely capped queen cells. The colony has been really quiet ever since. I have attempted to inspect twice but the weather hasn’t been quick good enough as I can only check at weekends. When I have tried the bees have been less than friendly which is not a good sign. I intend to do a proper check this weekend and if there is no sign of brood or a queen I will shake them out in front of another hive.
best of luck
Thanks dewey. I’m keeping an eye on them, checking them as often as I can. I can’t get into the log hive except to look through the observation window, which I do several times a day, looking for any sign of new life. Bees doing orientation flights would be a very welcome sight.
I think I read somewhere that a colony starting from a swarm will often supercede the queen that traveled with them. She is, after all, “old”. I think the colony will wait until she has laid a few rounds of brood so that there is an ample number of nurse bees, so that could explain why this happened 2 months after they took residence. This time of year is a tough, though, because the supercedure queen (while usually the best kind of queen to have) may be short-bred. I know you have lots of colonies in your area, so I hope she got “lucky” many times. 😉
Thanks, HB. Yes, it would be good if she got “lucky” many times AND made it back to the hive, but I haven’t seen much evidence to indicate that. I’m still in a holding pattern. It’s possible she’ll kick into a laying mode. We usually get an Indian summer into October and we don’t get temperatures like you get in Denver. We rarely get snow. I’ve seen the bees fly basically all winter (between rain storms) I said I was in a ‘holding pattern,’ but really, I’m always in a holding pattern at least on the log hives. I try not to intervene except to look through the observation glass now and then. Hope the bees don’t mind me staring at them in the evenings. 🙂
How’s things? Any signs of a new queen? My swarmed colony is (I am pretty sure) queenless and subject to laying workers. At this time of year there isn’t much I can do. I don’t want to directly combine so will probably shake them out one evening so they find a new queenright home.
Thanks for asking, Dewey. No sign of a new queen yet, I’m afraid. I keep looking (I should say ‘observing’ because I’m not actually opening the hive, but looking through the observation window). A couple of days ago, I saw the probe thermometer reading at 70F (21C), I thought, “At last, now we’re on our way,” but it was just the heat of the day had warmed that area up. The next day it was back to about 61F.
I have to say my Warre #2 is being a surprise. It hasn’t added bees in over six weeks. I didn’t take any photos because I just knew that hive was ‘gone.’ I was waiting for it to start getting robbed out so I could collect the empty (fairly new comb) and save it for bait hives, but in the recent few days, I’ve seen (through the observation windows) new life…more bees. The queen must have taken an extra long brood break. Any other beekeeper probably would have requeened, but I figured I’d just let nature take it’s course and see what would happen. That’s my policy on the Bee-atrice log hive too. I can’t very well pull out the comb without seriously disrupting things, so it’s going to have ‘do it’s own thing.’ If a worker starts laying, the drones will show and the hive will eventually die out, the wax moths will clean out the wax and another swarm will eventually find and occupy it.
When you shake your queenless hive bees near the entrance of a queenright hive, do they get a free pass into that hive?
For evening entry when they come in, in sufficient numbers they overcome any resistance and will be accepted. I have had a rethink though and may just wait and see. These bees will all be fairly short lived now anyway and they have plenty of honey to live out their final days. I suppose there may still be a queen I have missed that will take over. I don’t want to risk laying workers in the other hives.
It is such a beautiful home for bees that a new queen comes along soon.