Are my bees swarming?

[Lord Viykor]

Checked my 'old' hive and new swarm hive today, I really love living in the sub-tropics.

I robbed 10 frames in my original hive on the 23/06/12 and they've nearly finished capping it all off again. The new hive has capped and uncapped brood on nearly every frame in the brood box, give them a couple of months and the super should be nearly capped off and be ready for another one.

edit:speeling

[Lord Viykor]

Checked my 'swarm' hive today and find virtually no brood at all, looks like the queen either died or swarmed again.

Not sure whether to try a frame of brood with supercedure cells from my other hive or simply requeen.

Also think the hive is in a poor spot it doesn't get any direct sunlight, only a lot of filtered light. Seems to be encouraging a lot of hive beetle being in the shade.

[petert]

Went and had a look at my hives.Two have queen cells.I made two nucs from them,destroying those cells that were left.These were still single story.,and so are now 30% new frames.
What chance that the queen won't lay new queen cells now.If I put the new empty frames in the middle,perhaps she might see it as ever more roomy?

[Lord Viykor]

Quick update on the swarm I got back in August, I either rolled the queen or she died off of other causes back in early November.

After speaking with a guy from the local bee club about getting a queen from him he suggested trying a frame of brood from my other hive to see if they'd raise their own queen.

This worked a treat, when I checked it last week it has plenty of bees and visible brood in the bottom box. The first super is fully capped so I added a second one on Saturday.

It's looking promising so far, hope it keeps going well. Also added a slotted bottom board to help control the SHB it is getting a lot in the chux wipes trap.

[max2]

Quick update on the swarm I got back in August, I either rolled the queen or she died off of other causes back in early November.

After speaking with a guy from the local bee club about getting a queen from him he suggested trying a frame of brood from my other hive to see if they'd raise their own queen.

!!!remember to give a frame with eggs ( they stay eggs only for 3 days) or very young larvae - one day old - and it will work.

This worked a treat, when I checked it last week it has plenty of bees and visible brood in the bottom box. The first super is fully capped so I added a second one on Saturday.

It's looking promising so far, hope it keeps going well. Also added a slotted bottom board to help control the SHB it is getting a lot in the chux wipes trap.

The Chux have only been used in SE Qld for a few months as far as I know. I find that they do help with SHB but also trap a few poor bees.

[Lord Viykor]

I find that they do help with SHB but also trap a few poor bees.

That they do, the bees on mine were still alive to I picked them off and let them go back in the hive.