Artificial swarm - now what?

[bpmurray]

I split my hives a couple of weeks ago and I'm now quite confused.

The queen cells should have hatched out some time over the past few days, probably Wednesday. As I understand it, she won't start laying for another week or so, if I'm lucky. And those eggs won't start foraging for another 6 weeks.

So, what should I keep an eye on? I'm assuming that all the capped brood has probably hatched by now, so will I have enough bees to gather food, or should I feed?

The other side of things is, I think OK. The original queens are laying plenty of eggs, but I wonder about the ability of the flying foragers to look after them.

 

[snelgrove]

In my opinion you want the new queen laying , so check about 3 weeks after emergence. If stores are a problem then feed. As for the old queen as long as she's laying and the colony has given up,swarming then all is well

 

[Chris B]

Have you checked them at all in the last couple of weeks since you split them? If not you'll possibly find many emerged queen cells and a very depleted population. But you will have sealed brood for another week.

You'll be lucky to have new brood in 2 weeks from now. 3 would be more normal, especially if the weather is iffy. After about 4 weeks the chances of success are much lower, but cross that bridge if you come to it. Meanwhile I would have a quick check and "pull" a virgin if possible and remove all other queen cells to ensure no chance of further swarming. Feed if they are low on stores.