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[CAantz]

My beehive that I have had for a few months now just recently started to produce fake swarms. They are a large ish hive and I recently added a second deep box so I do not think they are swarming because they are out of room. However last week I noticed they were swarming. They balled up on a nearby branch, but about 20 minutes later they were up in the air again and were clearly streaming back into the hive. They did this last week, yesterday, and then again today. I have done some research on fake swarms and found out they this happens because the queen either doesn’t leave the hive or she ends up going back. However, I have found nothing on how to stop it and I am sure my neighbors would not want it happening a fourth time. Any advice on how to stop this fake swarming would be greatly appreciated!

[CAantz]

Quick update:

Just checked on the hive a few minutes ago and notecard some interesting things. First of all, there were no eggs and only capped brood. This means that the hive does not currently have a queen that is laying. I also noticed a lot of queen cells. There were both swarm cells and Supersedure cells. I do not believe that the Supersedure cells were emergency ones tho because they were very large.I removed as many of the swarm cells as I could because I don’t want the bees to swarm again. Most of the swarm cells were either empty or half complete with no egg inside. There were only one or two that had something inside when I removed them. The swarm cells are the explanation for why the bees are swarming, but I still have no clue as to why they keep coming back.

As for the Supersedure cells, there were around ten of them that were large and looked almost ready to hatch. I decided to leave these cells along in hopes one will hatch and become the new queen. (Btw I could tell the difference between swarm and Supersedure cels because swarm ones are at the bottom of the frames and Supersedure are in the middle to the top.)

If anyone has tips or if I I should do more to stop them from swarming please let me know!

Quick edit: I was doing some research and the Supersedure cells might actually be emergency cells. I think so because apparently it is is hard to tell the difference but when the bees are making Supersedure cells they usually only make a few. Because I saw around 10 cells in the middle of the frame I think they might be emergency ones. Either way the bees are trying to make a new queen cause the old one is either bad or dead.

Edited by CAantz, June 10 2024 - 12:07 PM.