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Too early for swarming?

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  • 04-04-2024 10:40am
    #1
    Homesick Alien
    Registered Users Posts: 778 ✭✭✭


    Hi all, first year beekeeper here.

    Did my first inspection about two weeks ago and was happy to see that the hive is near capacity already. It seems the bees have been busy despite the bad weather. I did notice quite a lot of play cups however and I don't know if I should be concerned this early in the year? Has anyone experience swarming in March/April?

    I'm planning to add a super this weekend provided the weather allows. Unfortunately when I built the brood box I messed it up and I need to remove and replace the top bars before I can add the super as the frames are sitting proud of the rails. This means the super would be sitting on top the frames rather than the edge of the brood box and leaving gaps all the way around. I don't see any other way to address this except to take all the frames out and then make the adjustments, though I don't think the bees will be happy!



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    #2
    PoorFarmer
    Registered Users Posts: 525 ✭✭✭PoorFarmer


    Can you add a strip of wood all the way around the bottom of the super so that it sits on the brood box instead of the frames?



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    #3
    HazeDoll
    Registered Users Posts: 440 ✭✭HazeDoll


    Would an eke solve the problem?



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    #4
    Homesick Alien
    Registered Users Posts: 778 ✭✭✭Homesick Alien


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121973649#Comment_121973649

    I guess I could. It would have to be quite precise in its engineering but yeah I could give it a go using the super as a guide. Thanks for the suggestion.



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    #5
    Homesick Alien
    Registered Users Posts: 778 ✭✭✭Homesick Alien


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121973721#Comment_121973721

    I was not familiar with that term so I looked it up and yes it sounds like it would. It sound similar to what PoorFarmer suggested.



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    #6
    Homesick Alien
    Registered Users Posts: 778 ✭✭✭Homesick Alien


    Well it looks like it's not too early for swarming. Did an inspection today, three sealed queen cells, no eggs and no sign of the queen. Having said that it looks like she either died or took less than half the colony with her as there was still a good number of bees active. Hard to tell as I'd only done one previous inspection and that was two weeks ago. I regret not destroying two of the three queen cells but I wasn't confident enough to do it without digesting what was going on first. I'll hopefully get a chance before they emerge.



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