Caught a swarm in bait hive

[whynothot]

I believe I've caught a swarm in my bait hive. TO be honest, it was just an empty hive sitting in the apiary, but it now has bees in.

But there doesn't seem to be any brood of any type, just lots of bees and honey. No sign of any queen, not that I'm particularly good at seeing unmarked queens, but I guess the lack of any BIAS means no queen?

How can there be a swarm in there without the queen?

What to do?

Introduce a few frames of BIAS from other hives and hope they raise a QC?

Buy in a new queen?

Or be patient and wait and see if anything happens if I have just not seen the queen? But certainly no BIAS now

Any advice appreciated

 

[Erichalfbee]

How long have they been there?
If less than a week they may have arrived with a virgin queen

 

[enrico]

How long have they been there?
If less than a week they may have arrived with a virgin queen

likely to be a virgin, be patient. They were free anyway so not the end of the world to hang on.
E

 

[oliver90owner]

PRIME - layingwithin three days?

CAST - Wait for the virgin to be mated!

It would not have been a swarm, unless it had a queen.

 

[whynothot]

Queen found

Thanks for the advice to be patient.

Virgin queen laying well in the hive. Had the bee inspector around today and she very kindly marked my new queen.

Passed my first bee inspection too

A good day...

 

[domino]

I was somewhat amazed myself to find one of the spare hives in the garden is now home to two frames of bees. Not a bait hive they just moved in ... I was rather pleased.

 

[oliver90owner]

Virgin queen laying well in the hive

Very sorry to have to point out she is a drone layer, in that case! Are you really sure she is a virgin?

 

[birdsandbees]

Virgin queen laying well in the hive

Very sorry to have to point out she is a drone layer, in that case! Are you really sure she is a virgin?

lets hope she is no longer a Virgin but instead a newly mated queen.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

lets hope she is no longer a Virgin but instead a newly mated queen.

Reminds me of a pop song of around 1970 "how does it feel" can't remember who sang it though

 

[chrisb]

Roy Harper

 

[whynothot]

Sorry, probably used the wrong description calling her a virgin queen then.

Bee inspector seemed happy enough that it was a queen laying correctly

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Roy Harper

No it was a different song. It might have had a different title but I recall the lines included

How does it feel
Now you're no longer a virgin

I am not a beast you know
My daddy was a priest you know

And towards the end

What do you mean
You want more and you want it right now.

Caused much mirth among teenagers at the time

 

[oliver90owner]

probably used the wrong description calling her a virgin queen then.

I think 'probably' was not quite the term I would use!

 

[Eyeman]

Some of my bait hives can end up only being inspected every 2 week. Some nice comb being drawn from the starter strips on a 14x12 frame by a swarm. A couple of elastic bands is a quick way of stabilising the comb.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

No it was a different song. It might have had a different title but I recall the lines included

How does it feel
Now you're no longer a virgin

I am not a beast you know
My daddy was a priest you know

And towards the end

What do you mean
You want more and you want it right now.

Caused much mirth among teenagers at the time

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=my+daddy+is+a+priest+you+know+lyrics

 

[Motobiman]

Seems to me IMLE, the very best bait hives are old used Nucs with a couple of drawn combs and the rest empty frames in?

It's that old bee smell attracts like no other . . . . .

 

[oliver90owner]

the very best bait hives are old used Nucs

Noo! Only OK if you want to catch small swarms. Cuts out most primes at a stroke?

 

[Motobiman]

the very best bait hives are old used Nucs

Noo! Only OK if you want to catch small swarms. Cuts out most primes at a stroke?

Well I've got two this year and both are marked queens and both in 6 frame nucs with the OMF removed and the resulting gaps filled.

So maybe where I am the swarms are smaller.

 

[Motobiman]

the very best bait hives are old used Nucs

Noo! Only OK if you want to catch small swarms. Cuts out most primes at a stroke?

Hell and I promised myself I would ignore this guys posts .....

 

[oliver90owner]

Please yourself. Your loss, not mine.

You said ''the very best''. Just not true in any way, shape or form. Experience of a beginner often holds little credence. Especially from thinking beeks.