{"id":82,"date":"2007-08-25T22:36:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-25T21:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82"},"modified":"2018-08-21T10:16:43","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T09:16:43","slug":"swarms-virgins-and-queens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82","title":{"rendered":"Swarms, virgins and queens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bp1.blogger.com\/_dUM9szv5FOM\/RoA6RpftuXI\/AAAAAAAAAIg\/l4dfhvULpOk\/s1600-h\/capped+queens+055.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5080124454544980338\" style=\"CURSOR: hand\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/bp1.blogger.com\/_dUM9szv5FOM\/RoA6RpftuXI\/AAAAAAAAAIg\/l4dfhvULpOk\/s320\/capped+queens+055.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> A queen cell that has been opened by the emerging queen.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/bp2.blogger.com\/_dUM9szv5FOM\/RoA6R5ftuYI\/AAAAAAAAAIo\/_Dt4K-G25Jc\/s1600-h\/capped+queens+007.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5080124458839947650\" style=\"CURSOR: hand\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/bp2.blogger.com\/_dUM9szv5FOM\/RoA6R5ftuYI\/AAAAAAAAAIo\/_Dt4K-G25Jc\/s320\/capped+queens+007.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> The new queen.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_0\">Didn<\/span>\u2019t want it to happen but it did.<br \/>Looked into the hive at <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_1\">Wallington<\/span> and found that the super was untouched. 10 frames of foundation and not a bee on them.<br \/>The super had been there for 3 weeks so I suspected something was amiss.<br \/>On further inspection at the 2 deep boxes I was using for brood I found no queen and 12 capped queen cells!<br \/>This meant that they had swarmed.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fjallravenkankensale.me.uk\/\"><\/a> They had run out of room and should have gone upstairs to the super but for some reason the workers <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_2\">hadn<\/span>\u2019t gone through the queen <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_3\">excluder<\/span>. I had heard this could happen but <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_4\">hadn<\/span>\u2019t seen it before.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alter48.fr\/\"> <\/a> They had then started to raise new queens and when they were capped over the old queen took half the colony to find a new place.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alter48.fr\/basket--air-.html\"> <\/a> This explained why there <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_5\">wasn<\/span>\u2019t many flying bees and the not so crowded colony.<br \/>I <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_6\">wasn<\/span>\u2019t sure what to do so left them as they were and went home to do some research.<br \/>Decided that the best thing to do was to split the hive. I had 2 deeps and 2 shallow in the one hive which meant I could split them into two quite easily.<br \/>I built the floor and roof for the <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_7\">WBC<\/span> (which I had had lying around fortunately) and took it down to the site the next day.<br \/>My plan was to leave each of the hives with one good queen cell so there would be no chance of a cast swarm.<br \/>Opened the hive and took off the queen cells and placed them in a box until I was sure they were none left in the hive.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alter48.fr\/\"> <\/a> So far so good.<br \/>Too my surprise when I looked into the box at the capped queen cells I saw a queen wandering around. I picked her up and put her in a queen cage. When I looked in the box again 3 more came out. I caged them and quickly split the hive.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alter48.fr\/-huarache.html\"> huarache<\/a> One deep and shallow for each. This meant that I was just in time. If I had left it any longer to visit the hive a virgin would have emerged and swarmed again with half of the remaining bees. This would have depleted the colony to a state of possible failure.<br \/>Since I was sure the hives were now queen cell-less I put one virgin into each of the hives, waited for a minute, and put the second virgin in too.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alter48.fr\/-air--2016.html\"><\/a> Figured I would let them fight it out \u2013 survival of the fittest and all that.<br \/>2 more queens emerged in the process but I had to cull them since I <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_8\">didn<\/span>\u2019t have any <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_9\">nucs<\/span> or mini <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_10\">nucs<\/span> for them. (Would have been nice to have a mini <span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_11\">nuc<\/span> to take off site to get her to mate)<br \/>This was on Wed 20<span class=\"blsp-spelling-error\" id=\"SPELLING_ERROR_12\">th<\/span> and since then the weather has been cold and wet. This reduces her mating chances. Fingers crossed that she does mate.<br \/>If anyone has a suggestion on when I should check the hive for eggs let me know. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A queen cell that has been opened by the emerging queen. The new queen. Didn\u2019t want it to happen but it did.Looked into the hive at Wallington and found that the super was untouched. 10 frames of foundation and not a bee on them.The super had been there for 3 weeks so I suspected something [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Swarms, virgins and queens - Urban Bees Website<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swarms, virgins and queens - Urban Bees Website\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A queen cell that has been opened by the emerging queen. The new queen. Didn\u2019t want it to happen but it did.Looked into the hive at Wallington and found that the super was untouched. 10 frames of foundation and not a bee on them.The super had been there for 3 weeks so I suspected something [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Urban Bees Website\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-08-25T21:36:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-08-21T09:16:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/bp1.blogger.com\/_dUM9szv5FOM\/RoA6RpftuXI\/AAAAAAAAAIg\/l4dfhvULpOk\/s320\/capped+queens+055.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brian\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brian\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?p=82#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?p=82\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brian\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1c869a0ab717d08cb151f342cc3c25af\"},\"headline\":\"Swarms, virgins and queens\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-08-25T21:36:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-08-21T09:16:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?p=82\"},\"wordCount\":530,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?p=82#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/bp1.blogger.com\\\/_dUM9szv5FOM\\\/RoA6RpftuXI\\\/AAAAAAAAAIg\\\/l4dfhvULpOk\\\/s320\\\/capped+queens+055.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"All blogs\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?p=82#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?p=82\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?p=82\",\"name\":\"Swarms, virgins and queens - Urban Bees Website\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?p=82#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?p=82#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/bp1.blogger.com\\\/_dUM9szv5FOM\\\/RoA6RpftuXI\\\/AAAAAAAAAIg\\\/l4dfhvULpOk\\\/s320\\\/capped+queens+055.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-08-25T21:36:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-08-21T09:16:43+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?p=82#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?p=82\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?p=82#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/bp1.blogger.com\\\/_dUM9szv5FOM\\\/RoA6RpftuXI\\\/AAAAAAAAAIg\\\/l4dfhvULpOk\\\/s320\\\/capped+queens+055.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/bp1.blogger.com\\\/_dUM9szv5FOM\\\/RoA6RpftuXI\\\/AAAAAAAAAIg\\\/l4dfhvULpOk\\\/s320\\\/capped+queens+055.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?p=82#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Swarms, virgins and queens\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/\",\"name\":\"Urban Bees Website\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Urban Bees Ltd\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/urbanbees-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/urbanbees-logo.png\",\"width\":400,\"height\":411,\"caption\":\"Urban Bees Ltd\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/alison_urbanbees\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\\\/blog_1\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1c869a0ab717d08cb151f342cc3c25af\",\"name\":\"Brian\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Swarms, virgins and queens - Urban Bees Website","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Swarms, virgins and queens - Urban Bees Website","og_description":"A queen cell that has been opened by the emerging queen. The new queen. Didn\u2019t want it to happen but it did.Looked into the hive at Wallington and found that the super was untouched. 10 frames of foundation and not a bee on them.The super had been there for 3 weeks so I suspected something [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82","og_site_name":"Urban Bees Website","article_published_time":"2007-08-25T21:36:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-08-21T09:16:43+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/bp1.blogger.com\/_dUM9szv5FOM\/RoA6RpftuXI\/AAAAAAAAAIg\/l4dfhvULpOk\/s320\/capped+queens+055.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Brian","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brian","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82"},"author":{"name":"Brian","@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/#\/schema\/person\/1c869a0ab717d08cb151f342cc3c25af"},"headline":"Swarms, virgins and queens","datePublished":"2007-08-25T21:36:00+00:00","dateModified":"2018-08-21T09:16:43+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82"},"wordCount":530,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/bp1.blogger.com\/_dUM9szv5FOM\/RoA6RpftuXI\/AAAAAAAAAIg\/l4dfhvULpOk\/s320\/capped+queens+055.jpg","articleSection":["All blogs"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82","url":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82","name":"Swarms, virgins and queens - Urban Bees Website","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/bp1.blogger.com\/_dUM9szv5FOM\/RoA6RpftuXI\/AAAAAAAAAIg\/l4dfhvULpOk\/s320\/capped+queens+055.jpg","datePublished":"2007-08-25T21:36:00+00:00","dateModified":"2018-08-21T09:16:43+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/bp1.blogger.com\/_dUM9szv5FOM\/RoA6RpftuXI\/AAAAAAAAAIg\/l4dfhvULpOk\/s320\/capped+queens+055.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/bp1.blogger.com\/_dUM9szv5FOM\/RoA6RpftuXI\/AAAAAAAAAIg\/l4dfhvULpOk\/s320\/capped+queens+055.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=82#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Swarms, virgins and queens"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/","name":"Urban Bees Website","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/#organization","name":"Urban Bees Ltd","url":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/urbanbees-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/urbanbees-logo.png","width":400,"height":411,"caption":"Urban Bees Ltd"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alison_urbanbees"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/#\/schema\/person\/1c869a0ab717d08cb151f342cc3c25af","name":"Brian"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}