Mark Walker said:
> I had a hell of time this summer trying to figure out if several
> of my hives were either in swarm mode or Supersceding.
> Are there any other behavioral or physical clues that I can
> observe and try factor into the determination of whether
> the hive is in superscedure or swarm mode?
Here is what some old beekeepers told me, which I listened to,
humbly thanked them for telling me, and believed for nearly
3 minutes and 42 seconds:
1) The general consensus is that a queen cell drawn from the
"middle" of a comb indicates a superscedure, while a queen
cell hanging from the bottom of a frame indicates swarming.
(From a purely rational view, a queen cell drawn
from the middle of a comb would be more likely
to indicate that an emergency replacement is
being cobbled together from one of the last eggs
laid by a recently deceased queen. But there I
go again, trying to mix rationality with beekeeping!)
2) Another "general consensus" is that bees preparing to swarm
make more queen cells than bees preparing to supercede,
so if you have a bunch of queen cells, you are more likely to be
looking at a colony preparing to swarm rather than supercede.
(But more than what? Compared to what?)
3) Another consensus observes that multiple swarms issue forth
from a swarming colony, and infers that swarming requires
queen cells at different stages of development.
(I can't tell a 2002 Honda from a 2001 Honda,
so I'm not going to try and guess how "old"
a queen cell is just by looking at it.)
So here is what I do:
I ignore the number of queen cells.
I ignore the position of the queen cells.
I ignore the entertaining Norse sagas written in crushed
roots and berries on compressed dead trees.
I ignore the details about queen cells completely,
except to verify that they are sealed, rather than open.
I look at what is right in front of me - the colony itself.
Focus on tangible, real-time indicators of the queen's presence and
productivity/health. Look at each brood chamber frame, and
guesstimate how much surface area in the brood nest is filled with:
a) Eggs
b) Larvae
c) Sealed brood
If you have "lots" of all three, queen cells indicate a swarming scenario.
(So, make a split, rotate brood chambers, prepare a swarm
trap, place crystals around the hive, maybe burn some incense
and play bagpipes. Shucks, I dunno, nobody seems to have
a sure-fire way to stop swarming. It is difficult to "control" a
hardwired urge to perpetuate the species. It should be.)
If you have few eggs and larvae relative to your other hives, or see a
egg/larvae/brood pattern with holes through which you could drive a truck,
you have a failing queen, and the cells are a hint that the bees are planning
on rewarding her hard work and diligent service to the colony by letting
her make a run for it before they tear her limb from limb. :)
The queen cells are for a supercedure.
If you find NO eggs and your other hives have eggs, then your queen is
very likely dead, and you have an "emergency replacement" scenario.
(Gotta verify this with care, as white eggs on white wax can be hard to
see, even in good light.)
As a special case, if you see eggs, but you see multiple eggs per
cell in many of the cells, you may want to go over the entire brood
chamber very slowly and carefully to see what percentage of the
cells have multiple eggs. Queens lay one egg per cell. Laying workers
lack the style and panache of a queen, and will often lay more than one
egg per cell. Laying workers mean that your queen may have died a while
ago, and the hive is in big trouble.
I think that there is no foolproof procedure
for detecting every supercedure.
Only one thing for sure, when it's warm
only God can make a swarm.
jim (The sound you hear is Joyce Kilmer
doing summersaults in her grave.)
|
