Scubi
New Bee
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2011
- Messages
- 13
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Chippenham
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 1
Just got home this even at about 4pm this evening to find a swarm in my garden. I am presuming it is from one of my own hives although I haven't confirmed this yet.
One of my hives in a standard national is reasonably strong after swarming in May, while the other (in a 14x12) is very week and I believe is Q- as I haven't seen her or eggs have been seen for coming up to 8 weeks.
I was planing to put in a test frame tomorrow or possibly the weekend if the weather was playing ball but looks like I could be too late.
I do not have a spare hive or nuc available but do have a standard brood box (no roof or floor).
I have managed to cut the swarm from the bush they were in and contain the swarm in a cardboard box.
Before I rush off to buy a new floor and roof tomorrow I was wondering whether it is possible to combine this swarm directly with the weaker colony straight away?
The plan was to put the spare brood box directly on top of the weaker colony with some brood comb and use the newspaper method to combine them. The thinking behind it was that if (and it is an if) the weak colony is q- then this may solve both problems (lack of spares and Q- colony) at the same time.
If not, I will be phoning my bee equipment supplier this evening!
Cheers.
Scubi
One of my hives in a standard national is reasonably strong after swarming in May, while the other (in a 14x12) is very week and I believe is Q- as I haven't seen her or eggs have been seen for coming up to 8 weeks.
I was planing to put in a test frame tomorrow or possibly the weekend if the weather was playing ball but looks like I could be too late.
I do not have a spare hive or nuc available but do have a standard brood box (no roof or floor).
I have managed to cut the swarm from the bush they were in and contain the swarm in a cardboard box.
Before I rush off to buy a new floor and roof tomorrow I was wondering whether it is possible to combine this swarm directly with the weaker colony straight away?
The plan was to put the spare brood box directly on top of the weaker colony with some brood comb and use the newspaper method to combine them. The thinking behind it was that if (and it is an if) the weak colony is q- then this may solve both problems (lack of spares and Q- colony) at the same time.
If not, I will be phoning my bee equipment supplier this evening!
Cheers.
Scubi