Fanning in the Morning-Queens in the Evening

[Jacobs]

My neighbor is pretty sure this is one of my hives that swarmed Wednesday. The bees have been bringing in pollen steadily since then. This morning at around 9:30 am, when it was still cool, this was the only hive that had bees all over the landing board and above the entrance fanning outward. Marc and Norma were looking at the front of the hive at around 5:00 pm, and pointed out a queen walking on the front of the hive. It appeared to be young and mated, but not carrying mating signs. It was tackled by one of the workers, landed on the landing board, and walked into the hive. We did not see her being brought out. We did look at the ground in front of the hive and found one dead unmated queen, and a live queen walking around. The live queen was NOT the one that walked in the hive. I picked up this queen, put her in a cage and have given her some sugar water ans some water. She appears to be young and mated but also not carrying mating signs.

Does anyone have any idea of what is going on with this hive? I've never seen anything like it.

[Wally]

Sounds like more than one swarm cell emerged at the same time, and didn't find each other. You should add a few attendants to the queen cage. She will not feed herself.

[Jacobs]

It looks like she took some water and sugar water through the screen when we spread drops of them over part of the screen. If she is still alive in the morning I will go to the hive she was in front of and let some of the workers walk on the cage and see how they react to her. If it is friendly, I will put them in the cage with her. If they look like they are hostile, she will have to try and make it until I can get her in a small nuc of queenless bees which I will try and set up in the morning before field day. If I can get that pulled quickly in the morning I will put the cage in the nuc in the afternoon.

[Zulu]

Wow Rob. You trying to break all records for the most swarms in a week?

[Jacobs]

I put added some attendants to her cage and they showed no interest in her. She grew more and more lethargic and closer to death so I opened the cork and let the attendants and queen just fade away. And that is the rest of this story.