Queenswood Apiary
New Bee
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2021
- Messages
- 57
- Reaction score
- 20
- Location
- Bridgwater, Somerset
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 3
I got my 1st Nuc in May all was going good until I had a swarm, luckily for me my Queen was clipped so ended up on the lawn, I caged her and placed 3 frames from the original hive into hive 2 along with 3 new waxed foundation frames and also shook in a couple of frames. She is doing brilliantly as of today, loads of brood in all stages. The original hive I checked last week and I thought I had removed all capped Queen cells just leaving one remaining, I have since lost a cast swarm so opened hive up today to find 2 empty Queen cells so am I right in assuming one Queen has gone in the cast swarm and one remains? I did look for the Queen but no sighting and obviously no eggs just stores. Just to complicate things I also had a swarm arrive in my garden on the 17th June, these have been placed into a 6 frame nuc and started feeding after 3 days, inspected today found the Queen tried to catch and mark but my god was she fast, so ended up loosing her in the hive. Now there are no signs of eggs etc so again I am assuming she has not matted yet, its been 9 days since I caught the swarm, should she have matted by now? What would you guys do in this situation, I only intended having 2 hives and obviously the swarm can not stay in the Nuc box for to long. I was hoping to see Queen in the original hive wait until she was laying then offer up the swarm to anyone who wanted them, but wanted to ensure I had a Queen myself, am I being to impatient?