Homing a swarm, advice needed

[GothicKeeper]

Hi,

To keep costs down after losing my hive that I started last year (yes I know that was some very bad luck), I am taking in a swarm that has been captured locally. It is coming with 3 frames in a box but wondered if there is anything I should know that is especially different to starting from a nuc.

I'm thinking of things like I need to feed them or if I need to be a bit quicker to check on brood sizes next year if they are prone to swarming already. Basically any advice that would differ from regular advice.

Many thanks
Xander

 

[enrico]

Hi,

To keep costs down after losing my hive that I started last year (yes I know that was some very bad luck), I am taking in a swarm that has been captured locally. It is coming with 3 frames in a box but wondered if there is anything I should know that is especially different to starting from a nuc.

I'm thinking of things like I need to feed them or if I need to be a bit quicker to check on brood sizes next year if they are prone to swarming already. Basically any advice that would differ from regular advice.

Many thanks
Xander

Just make sure they do not chill in this cold weather and that they have enough food. Remember they need food to produce enough energy to go out and forage. Depending how long the swarm has been hived as to wether they are still in comb building mode. But they also need room for the queen to lay. It sounds to me small enough to be a cast so you may have a virgin queen in there. Don't move the hive if she is out mating

 

[ericbeaumont]

need to be a bit quicker to check on brood sizes next year if they are prone to swarming already

Spring nest expansion is rapid and usually catches out the novice (and me) so yes, be timely with extra brood and super space, but don't get carried away with the idea that this nuc is swarmy.

It may just as easily have come from a source with a low swarming tendency, but swarmed because the beekeeper wasn't quick enough with extra brood and super space. Judge the colony by its performance if given plenty of brood and super space early enough.

PS: notice that I wrote brood and super space three times for emphasis: super space alone will not avert swarming.

 

[Eyeman]

Knowing its provenance if there is foul brood in your area. Consider an opportunity to treat with Oxalic acid before any brood is capped.

 

[ericbeaumont]

provenance if there is foul brood in your area

Good point: check advanced open brood and assure yourself that it is uniformly plump, segemented and in the shape of a letter C; photo any variation and send to your SBI.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Knowing its provenance if there is foul brood in your area. Consider an opportunity to treat with Oxalic acid before any brood is capped.

Am I misreading your post? Oxalic Acid isn't a treatment for foulbrood (as far as I know)

 

[ericbeaumont]

Am I misreading

I believe that Alec posted two tips, one to check the health of the brood, the other to deal with varroa carried by the swarm.

 

[GothicKeeper]

Just make sure they do not chill in this cold weather and that they have enough food. Remember they need food to produce enough energy to go out and forage. Depending how long the swarm has been hived as to wether they are still in comb building mode. But they also need room for the queen to lay. It sounds to me small enough to be a cast so you may have a virgin queen in there. Don't move the hive if she is out mating

I didn't know about the queen being out of the hive but they are on frames and had gone from 3 to 5 in the week between claiming and collecting so I think i'm good. my only annoyance was the keeper I got them from hadn't sealed off the nuc the night before so it was a case of just having the bees that were lucky enough to be in the nuc at the moment he sealed it shut. He seemed fairly knowledgeable so didn't understand why it was done this way but felt it rude to ask when he had been looking after them till i could collect them

 

[ericbeaumont]

sealed off the nuc the night before

You lost most of the flyers, but some of what is in the box will upgrade to foragers; are they bringing in nectar? If not, keep an eye on fresh stores and feed syrup if need be, to keep the queen laying.

He seemed fairly knowledgeable so didn't understand why it was done this way but felt it rude to ask

Did you want to collect during the day, or did he? If you made the decision then the loss of flyers is your responsibility; if he made the decision, then he is a knowledgeable fly-by-night who knew that you might not know, so kept the flyers.

Next time, check the status of a colony during flying time, but collect at dusk and make sure it hasn't been moved between check and collection.