Knock down or leave'em to it?

[Bluetractorman]

A colony was unpleasantly defensive, I therefore made them hopelessly Q- by confining the Q to a cage for a week and then put in a frame of eggs from another colony. They'll of course build EQ cells.
Leave'em to it or reduce to one or two QC's?

 

[user 819]

Simples , if you leave them to it and do now't they will swarm with a VQ. If removing the old Q and wanting the new progany to take over then reduce to one QC at day 14 and if need be harvest the other cell/s and make up a nuc.

As one is managing a colony then manage it and not leave it to chance.

 

[jeff33]

Simples , if you leave them to it and do now't they will swarm with a VQ.

No they won't unless the colony was already in swarm mode and had made swarm cells. There is no mention in the OP that these were about to swarm.

@Bluetractorman if you don't remove your old caged queen from the box they will not make any Qcs as they are not Q-. When you add a frame of brood from a good colony you must take out the old queen and kill her. Personally, I would go back 4 days after and remove any capped queen cells as these will have been made out of older larvae. Leave 3-4 opened ones just to make sure.

 

[Bluetractorman]

No they won't unless the colony was already in swarm mode and had made swarm cells. There is no mention in the OP that these were about to swarm.

@Bluetractorman if you don't remove your old caged queen from the box they will not make any Qcs as they are not Q-. When you add a frame of brood from a good colony you must take out the old queen and kill her. Personally, I would go back 4 days after and remove any capped queen cells as these will have been made out of older larvae. Leave 3-4 opened ones just to make sure.

Jeff, I did remove the caged Q after 7 days. She's in a backup nuc for now. There was zero sign of any swarm impulse.
I don't think they could have used anything other than the eggs in the frame I put in given the 7 day laying break. Unless they used a 4 day old larvae. Surely not... Although on reflection there may have been younger larvae in the frame I put in 5 days ago, 19th Apr. I'll have a look in now.
Thanks very much for your thoughts on this, really appreciated.

 

[jeff33]

Jeff, I did remove the caged Q after 7 days. She's in a backup nuc for now. There was zero sign of any swarm impulse.
I don't think they could have used anything other than the eggs in the frame I put in given the 7 day laying break. Unless they used a 4 day old larvae. Surely not... Although on reflection there may have been younger larvae in the frame I put in 5 days ago, 19th Apr. I'll have a look in now.
Thanks very much for your thoughts on this, really appreciated.

Agreed, they will have used what you give them. Emergency impulse is sometimes desperation and they use both older larvae and younger larvae. Its not a must do but I like to do it to try and get a better fed queen.

 

[Bluetractorman]

Agreed, they will have used what you give them. Emergency impulse is sometimes desperation and they use both older larvae and younger larvae. Its not a must do but I like to do it to try and get a better fed queen.

They had only used what i gave them. One sealed which, given only 5 days since i put the frame in, i knocked down, leaving a couple of open ones. Thanks again. Pic attached.

 

[Paulypaul]

No they won't unless the colony was already in swarm mode and had made swarm cells.

I agree with this.
Swarming requires a number of stimuli and conditions to be in place.
I've left a number of swarm cells in a nuc, gone back a bit later than I intended and all the QCs were destroyed some days before one was left by the bees to emerge.