Caught my own swarm... advice

[Janv]

Hi All
One of my hives swarmed today (beginner error ! I'm sure)
But after settling in a field nextdoor on a branch of an elder ye in the hedgerow I was able to shake it cleanly into a nuc box. After a while i put on the lid and they were all fanning at the door and other bees entering through the entrance. I will go back late this evening to collect it if they are still present in the box. Question is can I bring it back to were my 3 hives are in my own garden or will all them bees then fly back into the original hive or what should I do with it?
Thanks Jan

 

[Erichalfbee]

You will get a few returnees but you can safely take them home

 

[Poly Hive]

Its actually one of the beekeeping constants that a swarm loses its location information and so can be put anywhere really.

What you need to do is go through the parent stock and remove the advanced queen cells, leaving one or at the most two open ones. this will slow down the time between now and the virgin emerging and so give the bees time to calm down.

PH

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hi All
One of my hives swarmed today (beginner error ! I'm sure)

Not only beginners it happens to, part of the joys of beekeeping - however good you are (or think you are) you'll lose a few.

 

[Beefriendly]

Very true Mr.Jenkins....
Nothing so humbling as where the Eff has that lot gone to...and where have all those sealed queen cells miraculously appeared from.

Oh and the classic I've knocked down all the queen cells........
They hide them in extraordinary places....

 

[Erichalfbee]

I once spent half an hour going through a brood box three or four times having found swarm cells and no queen only to shut up and hear an almighty roar as the swarm rose up from a tree behind me to disappear across the fields. All that time they were hanging there!!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Give them a few days to settle then vape them
You'll get all the mites

 

[Janv]

Great guys thanks for advice..I had 2 brood frames of Foundation in the 6 frame nuc box when I shook them in should I fill this with more Foundation and should I feed them after they come home??
Thanks again

 

[Erichalfbee]

Fill the box with frames.
Give them a feed, just a couple of litres, in a couple of days once they've drawn some foundation and the queen has started laying.
As far as feeding goes just keep an eye on the weather. If they can get out they will probably need little after the first one or two feeds

 

[Millet]

I once spent half an hour going through a brood box three or four times having found swarm cells and no queen only to shut up and hear an almighty roar as the swarm rose up from a tree behind me to disappear across the fields. All that time they were hanging there!!!

I did similar last year..well maybe a little different.... i spotted loads of Queen cells both capped and uncapped with the Queen still present... i did a Pagden which actually worked for once with the original Queen and then methodically went through all the frames removing all but one Queen cell..
Several days later the hive with one Queen cell swarmed which i manged to get into a nuc..i found the Virgin running around in the nuc a couple of days later...i also found a open cell among a load of drone brood and on closer examination it was a missed Queen cell that was impossible to find..through that palava i now remove any suspect drone brood from the bottom bars when doing artificial swarms..