How long to wait POST artificial swarm

[Father Fox]

I've just completed my first artificial swarm. Leaving a single queen cell, with larva inside, with loads of brood and bees with it. Old queen is in new hive, with the flying bees coming in to find lots of undrawn frames to keep them busy. my question is .. How long should I leave it before inspecting the hive with the queen cell. I presume it is best to wait until enough time has passed for the virgin queen to have mated and started laying?

 

[oliver90owner]

I presume it is best to wait until enough time has passed for the virgin queen to have mated and started laying?

No. You have not yet completed the A/S. Presuming is not a good thing to do.

 

[ratcatcher]

I presume it is best to wait until enough time has passed for the virgin queen to have mated and started laying?

No. You have not yet completed the A/S. Presuming is not a good thing to do.

so surely, the nice thing to do, would have been to say why?

 

[Father Fox]

so surely, the nice thing to do, would have been to say why?

Yes please.

I am a beginner in the beginners section, so if at all possible I am after advice.

I would be happy to have both hives occupied, so maybe what I have done is a split rather than an artificial swarm???

 

[SimonB]

You should inspect the queenless part of the AS after 3-4 days and remove any further emergency queen cells which have been built which the bees will have done if there were any eggs present.

Once done, the advice I have read is to leave alone for several weeks. One word of caution though is to heft regularly and super them if needs be. I've ended up with a honey bound brood box where the newly mated queen has been unable to lay and the colony has swarmed.

Also a good tip to 'label' the QC if you haven't, using a drawing pin in the top bar of the frame, in line with where the QC is on the frame. That way you can recall which you decided to keep, and it's a reminder not to shake the frame.

EDIT: Also some would advise switching the queenless colony to the other side of the Q+ colony after a period (I forget quite how long, will be in a book) to draw any newly flying bees off into the Q+ colony, to reinforce the bee's sense that a swarm has happened.

 

[Erichalfbee]

You should inspect the queenless part of the AS after 3-4 days and remove any further emergency queen cells which have been built which the bees will have done if there were any eggs present.

Bees can make QCs on 3 day larvae so to be safe I have a look in 5 days later.
Pagden has the parent colony moved to the other side of the AS a week after to bleed off more bees, thus weakening the colony so they are less likely to swarm. If you have left only the one QC you can omit this move.

 

[SimonB]

Bees can make QCs on 3 day larvae so to be safe I have a look in 5 days later.

Sage advice, many thanks. Just checked one colony that I had been through 4 days after they swarmed and had left one uncapped QC. There had been no obvious eggs as one would expect.

The little devils had drawn 15 or so QCs which I have knocked back. One looks like it might have emerged, so I may have lost a cast, or am about to.

Is this indicative of a colony that is desparate to swarm again, and they'll likely try again once the new queen is laying, or do the bees simply like to have multiple QCs before the queen is mated/laying?