Experience with cast swarms

[Fatbee]

Just wondered what people's success rates are with hiving cast swarms. I was asked to remove a swarm and it was pretty small (small rugby ball). Unmarked queen spotted and all appeared OK with bees hived and then flying but kept my distance because didn't want to spook a potential virgin. 6 days later (on the warm Thurs we had) my father-in-law came in saying there was a lot of bee activity and by the time I got to apiary there they were gone and not in the vicinity that I could see. In hive they had taken the syrup provided and what has puzzled me is some drawn comb so looked like they were thinking of setting up home.

Just wondered how other people have got on with casts and if they are notoriously flighty is there any tips for dealing with this - possibly uniting straightaway with another colony?

 

[oliver90owner]

Let's deal with the last first. Uniting casts is one thing, uniting bees of unknown provenance with your healthy(?) bees is another. Avoid it, is my suggestion.

Swarms absconding is always a risk.

Just thinking about it should indicate that a prime is less likely to go after three days, than a cast - they will likely already have eggs by that stage and used up their baggage stores, reinvesting it as wax - a fairly considerable amount of building work could have been done. Five or six days in, and they will likely have open brood as a further investment.

Compare now the situation with a cast - smaller so less wax built (especially if homed in a cavern during cold wet weather). No brood likely for over a week. Queen has not been fed to start laying (not yet mated for several days) so can easily fly to abscond as easily as to mate.

From those simple comparisons, it is clear why more casts abscond than primes.

Providing them with a warm home (so they can get building wax); providing them with some brood to look after is another.

I am sure others will think of a couple more.

 

[beeno]

Hi,
Casts are notorious for being difficult. Had one in April. Heard the Q never saw her. She did not get mated as weather so bad in April and ended up with laying workers. Look on the bright side at least you have not got that to deal with. It is disappointing nevertheless and my bees were really good lookers. I do what the German pros do in that video which was posted on this forum shut them in for three days. I seem to recall that the mating success rate was 75% but I might be wrong. Judging by the amount of swarm catching on this forum one will be along soon.

 

[jackbee]

I had a small cast on a wednesday, absconded the next day.

Got another cast, similar size on the saturday - same hive, same #frames, same weather, Q appeared to go on mating flight next day andthey're still there, not expanded much (2 frames brood, 1 store) bit at least they're still there.

Seems you never can tell

 

[meidel]

Throughout this season, we've caught 4 cast swarms - 2 became non or drone layers and only 1 mated and laid but later she was superseded. The last one was hived a week ago but the beek whose bees they're from plan to find the VQ, dispose of her and re-unite the bees with one of her small but Q+ colonies. So far none have absconded ...

 

[susbees]

No problems at all with cast swarms this season and the only DLQ (so far) was in a split. All get the bottom board put in and a bit of queen excluder across the entrance for three days and are fed if needed at that point.

Had two of the primes (the only two left in skeps overnight) lose their queens by morning (skeppings text-book) and both home-in on the apideas which are well-hidden on a circular stand amongst dense bushes quite a way away. Lots of fiddling about to sort.