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What makes you think the Q is a virgin? If this is the first swarm (prime) from the colony it will be the old queen, in which case I would leave qe on until there is brood present.

My Ultra Breeze is excellent, on hot days I have worn it with only a pair of shorts underneath and no stings. They are a little heavier than conventional suits but if there is a breeze blowing you can feel it.

I think step 2 of HM's recommendation is just a test frame to ensure there is no Q present. If qc's are produced on this frame you should destroy them, then introduce your laying queen. No need to wait until they are about to emerge.

One of the reasons why Wally Shaw modified it.

Depends on the size of swarm but last week I had a medium sized swarm draw out 6 frames in 4 days without feeding syrup. Swarms really are great for building up your stocks of drawn comb.

Come on Finny, nowhere does the op say they were swarmy bees, for all you know this could be the first swarm in 4 years! He also said he wanted a nuc from this colony.

Mark the position of a nice loaded cell in the top box, then when sealed, make up your nuc with the frame the cell is on, a frame of stores, and shake in another frame of young bees. Fill up with foundation or preferably drawn comb. Combine your two colonies using newspaper method on Q+ site and...

Inspected a descent swarm that I collected last Thursday evening which I dumped in a 6 frame (foundation only) poly nuc. All frames drawn and queen laying.

Thanks for that hedgehog, great to know that he will be available and willing to travel.

Will do. After I've got my ticket.

Many thanks Fritillary, looks like that's the way to go.

Does anyone know if Wally Shaw has any talks planned in the Yorkshire area this year?

Was that not a queen walking across the middle of the frame 3.25 into the video?

And interestingly, a significant amount of pollen going in is not osr.

I wish you luck, however, in the past I have had the foragers from the stronger colony completely overwhelm the weaker one and even kill the queen. I always now go for transplanting emerging brood, even in small amounts.

I would think its still too cold to expect bees to move into serious wax production.

Wally Shaw's Modified Snelgrove 2 every time for me.

"you have no control over the drones your virgin will mate with." I agree, she may mate with drones from F1 queens and really screw your breeding plans up!

Has anyone noticed what looks like a large emerged Q/C about 6 minutes in. I also didn't see any uncapped brood. I hope the emerged queen was present and mated.