Collected Swarm, should I buy a queen or wait.

[johnnythefridge]

Hi All,

I have just collected a swarm from DY2 8QR. Should I wait to see if I managed to collect a viable queen, or should I hedge my bets and buy a laying queen and be done with it ?

The details of the heist:

I arrived at 19:00 to see a swarm in a thorny bush. I suited up and lit my smoker. I put my travelling box on the floor near to the swarm and then reached into the bush with both hands and lifted a christmas pudding sized lump of bees before putting it into my traveling box. I then lifted out a few more handfulls of bees from the surrounding branches before giving the bush a good rattle. I then put the lid on the traveling box leaving a 1/4" gap at one end. I then spent a good hour smoking the bush to drown the smell of the pheremones in the bush. Eventually the box was heavy with bees, some on the walls, but the majority hanging from the inside of the lid. I then put the lid on properly, hefted it into the boot and drove home.


Answers on a postcard.

John.

 

[fatshark]

Wait.

Pretty reasonable weather for queen mating at the moment if she is a virgin. If she's not then you're £30 better off.

 

[Moggett]

Trust the bees. They obviously think they have a viable queen!

 

[Dan Job]

Wait. Even if queen doesn't begin to lay why not give them a frame of eggs from your other hive to raise their own queen, unless your other hives have undesirable traits.
Dan

 

[oliver90owner]

Tell us how you collected it. Fairly easy to then give you a more definitive answer.

 

[Tom Bick]

Picked up a small cast swarm last year took most of the year to build up and currently on double brood and five supers. So never know.

 

[johnnythefridge]

I arrived at 19:00 to see a swarm in a thorny bush. I suited up and lit my smoker. I put my travelling box on the floor near to the swarm and then reached into the bush with both hands and lifted a christmas pudding sized lump of bees before putting it into my traveling box. I then lifted out a few more handfulls of bees from the surrounding branches before giving the bush a good rattle. I then put the lid on the traveling box leaving a 1/4" gap at one end. I then spent a good hour smoking the bush to drown the smell of the pheremones in the bush. Eventually the box was heavy with bees, some on the walls, but the majority hanging from the inside of the lid. I then put the lid on properly, hefted it into the boot and drove home.

 

[oliver90owner]

Were bees fanning and attracting bees to the box?

If so you have the queen. It is quite clear and unambiguous.

Seems likely a cast unless your christmas puddings huge.

Bees don't swarm unless they have a viable queen. If you got nearly all of them, she will be in there.

Whether they stay is another matter, so I would not be ordering in a new queen just yet.

 

[johnnythefridge]

They were doing the Nasonoft gland fanning thing quite nicely ... so there might be hope yet.

 

[Outlander]

Why buy a queen in, what did you do with the one that came with them?

I think you wasted an hour smoking the bush unless it was the kind we used to smoke when younger. Only ever used a smoker on my very first swarm and found out I didn't really need it, though I suppose there are times when it may come in handy. For bush I would have probably cut some of the branches away and used some Airwick on the rest. Anyway back to that queen what did you do with her?

 

[johnnythefridge]

I don't know for sure if I managed to scoop up the queen with the rest of the swarm... fingers crossed hey ! ...

 

[beesleybees]

Why buy a queen in, what did you do with the one that came with them?

I think you wasted an hour smoking the bush unless it was the kind we used to smoke when younger. Only ever used a smoker on my very first swarm and found out I didn't really need it, though I suppose there are times when it may come in handy. For bush I would have probably cut some of the branches away and used some Airwick on the rest. Anyway back to that queen what did you do with her?

I always heavily smoke whatever the swam was on to disguise the queens scent after 99% of the bees are in my nuc. Always seems to work and never had anyone call me back to say there are a tennis ball size of bees still there. I do however always pic the nuc back up when it's pitch black in the hope all the forages are in

 

[johnnythefridge]

Seems to be filling up the box nicely.

 

[johnnythefridge]

OK, there was a viable queen in the swarm, they have filled one 14x12 with brood and are well on the way to filling the 2nd one that i put on. The have even put half of one frames worth of Honey in the super. Question now is: Should I shoot for overwintering them as one colony or make plans to spit them into two hives for the winter.... place your chips.... red or black ....?

Regards,

John.

 

[Dan Job]

Hi All,

...lifted a christmas pudding sized lump of bees before putting it into my traveling box.
John.

Wow and they have now filled a 14x12 and now on their way to 2!!! Must have been one hell of a Christmas pudding!! I'm used to a 1lb pudding!!

Red - leave as one.