Advice needed: Reuniting colonies and action after swarm.

[terryme]

I will try to be clear and brief. We are looking for advice about possibly recombining a swarm with it's parent colony.
Colony A - parent colony. (we think Q hatched around 30/4)
Colony B - result of AS from colony A (AS was done 17/4)
Colony C - not related.
Swarm 18/5 - we think from colony A, the parent colony.
Colony A had appeared settled since the AS, we were waiting to see if Q mated etc and started laying - the weather has been very poor so inspections have not been possible so a QC that we missed must have hatched resulting in yesterdays swarm. We are not 100% sure of the origin of the swarm as the bait hive they moved into is in our garden and our apiary is on our allotment 0.5miles away. Today is the first day warm enough for an inspection and colony A is much reduced with 2 empty QCs so we are assuming we got our own swarm.
Well done if you are still bothering to read! We are debating whether to recombine as colony A and the swarm are both smallish now and colony A is sluggish with no sign of a Q in residence.
Any advice will be appreciated, what recombine method/timing/action re Q etc? - this is only our second season so we have more questions and problems than solutions! Thanks.

 

[terryme]

adding: colony A has a nosema problem we were debating how to treat as well.... would recombing them onto the swarm's fresh foundation help to reduce the nosema load? What to do with the two supers full from colony A? I told you we had questions...

 

[terryme]

well! I can't believe no-one has commented..... on your own heads be it when we mess it all up, you have been warned

 

[oliver90owner]

The swarm (18/5) could not have been derived from the newly emergerge queen of 30th April.

How do you know youhave a nosema problem with colony A?

Was this a prime swarm or a cast?

You say 'no sign of a quen in residence' Please explain you reasoning, advise your testing and justify your conclusion.

I would leave things as they are at present and wait for developments in the next two to four weeks (depending on the status of the two colonies).

RAB

 

[terryme]

Nosema - we attended an association testing evening so we know we have a heavy load on that colony.
We are assuming we missed a Q cell or two and a newly hatched Q absconded - we missed two weeks of inspections due to poor weather conditions.
We assume we are Q- as there are no eggs, the colony is sluggish and is now down to 3 or so frames whereas before they were over nearly 11 frames and purposeful. We were waiting to see if the VQ that had emerged 30/4 was going to start laying....but nothing so far. There are so few of them that even a skinny Q should have been (?) noticed.
The swarm is only 3 or so frames so we assume a cast rather than a primary.
ps - thank you for responding

 

[richardbees]

Terry...I'm London based so don't know what weather you've been having - but the behaviour of my bees this year has been hugely abnormal and outside the rule book.

You may have a problem with a virgin queen not mating and I agree with Oliver and suggest you just leave them for another two weeks.

I'd also suggest you may consider if they need feeding...I'm certainly preparing to unless we get some rain soon.
richard

 

[terryme]

Thanks we will try to restrain ourselves then.... new beeks want to fiddle too much! Should we feed colony A (parent colony) though they do have stores...... *thinking* if we take the supers we can then treat for nosema and feed at the same time. still listening to advice though before action - we want to learn!

 

[richardbees]

I'm just saying you should consider if they need feeding; keep an eye on their stores as because of the unusual weather the 'June gap' may be starting early.

You could take off some of the honey but leave enough for them - and don't treat for Nosema yet, they're stressed enough as it is!