"boosting" a swarm

[goodbobby]

I hived a secondary swarm with a virgin queen 5 weeks ago.The queen is now mated, laying and the resultant brood/stores situation is now about the size of a good five frame nuc on 14x 12 and growing slowly in size.

I am considering introducing 2 or 3 frames of brood and stores(minus bees)from another hive that started as a nuc earlier this spring and is progressing very well having already filled and capped two supers with another well under way. My raison d'etre is to give the swarm colony a boost. Is this advisable?

Also the potential donor nuc colony (buckfast) is well behaved whereas the swarm colony (a much blacker bee) is livelier although not nasty. Out of curiosity,will such an experiment in bee eugenics have any impact in the hive mood?....I appreciate re-queening is obviously the way to change temperament if needed.

 

[rae]

It will be fine, and we've just done something very similar. We have a colony that is so prolific that it will probably try and swarm while we are away for two weeks, so we've removed a few frames of brood (about to hatch) and one frame of eggs and given it to a rather suspect colony. The weak colony is boosted (and the test frame should tell us what the heck is going on) and the strong colony now has a bit of space to fill in the brood box.

The bees will get along fine, the newly hatched buckfasts will simply assume that they live in the new hive.

 

[Hivemaker.]

The bees will get along fine, the newly hatched buckfasts will simply assume that they live in the new hive.

You sure about this Rae.......what happens if they get hold of a mirror,they could start asking awkward questions about where they came from.....mum and dad ect.

 

[rae]

That's why you must NEVER leave a mirror anywhere near a hive. Can you imagine it: 50,000 girls and a single mirror.....

(I read it in Hooper, honest)

 

[Hebeegeebee]

A frame a week is usually recommended so there are enough bees to cover the brood.

 

[goodbobby]

Thanks guys, I must admit that the anti-swarming angle on the donor hive is an added bonus aspect that was somewhere in my murky memory. Hebeegeebee that makes good common-sense which (sadly) had not occurred to me.

 

[milkermel]

 

[Silly Bee]

The bees will get along fine, the newly hatched buckfasts will simply assume that they live in the new hive.

You sure about this Rae.......what happens if they get hold of a mirror,they could start asking awkward questions about where they came from.....mum and dad ect.

Mom and Grand dad I think.

 

[BKF Admin]

What if you end up with 50,000 Buckfast daughters all shouting "Gingers for justice".