After the swarm there are at least 3 virgin queens roaming the colony:

A solid gold one that is pretty much chill.  She moves slowly and has very few bees in her retinue.  The bees seem to pretty much ignore her.

A stripy one that moves freely around the colony pausing frequently to pipe.

And a pale gold one that ran maniacally throughout the colony and met an early demise!

It will be interesting to see how this all works out.  At this rate, they’ll be swarming in January!

Meanwhile, back at the observation hive the congestion builds.  I haven’t seen any queen cells yet, though.

The reason soon became apparent.  The bees balled her! Note the condensation on the hive glass.  This point on the glass was considerably hotter than the surrounding surface.

This morning I found her on the bottom screen with a few workers attempting to move her carcass out.

Just a side note, After Swarm E occurred today.  I looked out and saw the queen on the landing board.  I attempted to catch her in a queen cage but failed.  We messed with the swarm a couple times and I think we saw the queen return to the hive.  The bees either dispersed or returned to the hive. It was quite small, maybe a cup and a half of bees.

Here it is boxed up and ready to head to Kristien’s to live out it’s life in her top bar hive.

They congregated on the window.   I dutifully swept them into a bag and placed them in a box full of comb.  They kindly flew right back to the window.  They remained congregated on the window until the 14th.

On the May 14th, the observation hive swarmed again, producing AfterSwarm B.

I called Todd and he brought some cardboard nuc boxes.  We put AfterSwarm B into a box where they stayed.  After dark I corked it up and delivered it to Todd on the morning of the 15th.

We then approached AfterSwarm A on the window.  They had a few scouts returning and dancing.  They seemed to be behaving as a swarm.  I once again swept them into a box.  This time it was cardboard with two frames of foundation.  They didn’t like those accommodations either.  They dispersed.  I have no idea whether some returned to the observation hive or if they congregated somewhere out of my detection.

This afternoon at about 1:52 once again the hive roared.  It actually made some sounds that resembled a jet plane.  Totally amazing the sounds these bees can produce.  Much lower and rumblier than I’ve heard before.  It sounded as though a couple frames where shaking.  I couldn’t see that happening though.  And through all of this the queens continue to pipe.

A bunch of bees flew away. I’m calling them AfterSwarm C.  I think they went in the direction of the cemetery.  I haven’t found them yet.  I don’t think it was too many bees, probably less than a pound.

And that is the swarm report for today!

So the congestion in the observation hive is increasing again.  It is 10 days since I first noticed a capped queen cell and none have hatched.  I hear the queens quacking off and on. The bees are all over the queen cells that I have found.  I wonder if this congestion indicates that the colony will swarm again when one of the queens finally makes it out of the cell?

When Kristien and I arrived from setting up the cloake board at the farm, this is what we found!  We swept them into a bag and then dumped them into their new quarters.  I have a short video of the marching but I don’t know how to post that.  As swarm video’s go, it’s nothing remarkable. Here is a picture of a bee Nasonov-ing.  Pretty nice shot, if I say so myself!

Here are before and after shots of the observation hive.  Pay special attention to the level of congestion on the bottom frame and space below it.

Before

After

Not that we weighed them, but we guesstimate that there were about 3 lbs of bees in the swarm.  I’ve provided them with a gallon of 1:1 syrup for the day and so far they seem pretty well settled in.

Thanks for all your help today Kristien!

And last night the bees capped a queen cell! I think this means they will swarm on Tuesday or Wednesday!