Cast swarm advice.

[Forester Doug]

I had a swarm with my original queen about 3 weeks ago. They couldn't be recovered as they went without a trace.

I had thinned out the queen cells to just 2, hoping they would make themselves queen right. When removing the queen cells I noticed a queen had emerged from the split queen cell so i placed her in my hive, the bees were very aggressive, and i did not remove the remaining two queen cells, hoping the queen would do the job for me.

Today I lost a second swarm from the hive, I assume it was the queen I released, but there may have been more virgin queens moving around I removed all remaining queen cells, and as they have no eggs or young larvae they cannot raise any more queens. This time I managed to recover them.

I am unsure if the new queen has mated, but at the moment I have her captive in a second brood box until they feel at home. They seem to be settling in fine. Though I will need to allow her to leave of she hasn't mated yet.

My question is this, how long should I wait before uniting the colony with this new queen? If I leave it too long the workers could start laying as they haven't had a laying queen in a while, do I do this with some paper between the two?

Any advice welcome.

 

[beeno]

The state of the remaining QC you removed is critical. Had a queen emerged from them i.e. did they display a round circular hole or did they have a hole on the side in which case a virgin queen has killed them and the workers removed the dead queens.

 

[Forester Doug]

They still had live queens in, they hadn't emerged yet, but at least one I saw had a moving queen inside before I squished it. I'm thinking maybe I should re queen, the bees were fairly aggressive, and not fun to work with, I doubt this new queen in the swarmed will be any better.

 

[beeno]

They probably settle with the new queen.

 

[Forester Doug]

They probably settle with the new queen.

Do you think? They were a little aggressive before the swarming behaviour started, I am just worried the Gene's of this queen will carry it on.

 

[beeno]

The swarm Q will have to mate, but keep her confined for three days and fingers crossed that she mates - nice mating weather coming up. The other hive may have more afterswarms, have one virgin in there or you may have left it queenless by taking down all the remaining QC. As long as there is still capped brood the colony will function and laying workers will not take over. I would wait until the swarm queen starts laying before uniting and you have to make sure the other colony is indeed queenless before you do so. A test frame of eggs and very young larvae is used for this purpose which you do not have at this moment. Have you got a mentor or are you a member of a local BKA that can assist? Colonies often get aggressive whilst in the process of swarming and requeening themselves, but they usually settle once the queen is mated. Good luck and well done for catching the swarm.

 

[Forester Doug]

The swarm Q will have to mate, but keep her confined for three days and fingers crossed that she mates - nice mating weather coming up. The other hive may have more afterswarms, have one virgin in there or you may have left it queenless by taking down all the remaining QC. As long as there is still capped brood the colony will function and laying workers will not take over. I would wait until the swarm queen starts laying before uniting and you have to make sure the other colony is indeed queenless before you do so. A test frame of eggs and very young larvae is used for this purpose which you do not have at this moment. Have you got a mentor or are you a member of a local BKA that can assist? Colonies often get aggressive whilst in the process of swarming and requeening themselves, but they usually settle once the queen is mated. Good luck and well done for catching the swarm.

No I don't have a mentor. Would now be a terrible time to re-queen? I have a hive with workers and a swarmed unmated queen. To kill her and introduce one with a nice temperament, would speed up getting back to brood production and give me calmer bees coming through.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Repwoc]

Would now be a terrible time to re-queen?

You can re-queen now with a mated queen if you wish. It will take a couple of days to get a new queen, then a few days for the bees to release her from the travel cage. So with luck she could be laying by the end of July. There is then plenty of time to build up ready for winter.

I made up two nucs with laying queens yesterday and will be making more next weekend.

 

[Forester Doug]

Cheers for the advice, I have ordered a new queen my first bred queen!