Late swarm with small queen

[Willardx]

Hi. I collected a swarm last week. It covers 8 frames and the bees have an excellent temperament, amongst the calmest I've ever handled. There are no signs of brood yet and the queen appears very small, like a virgin. Do you think that this is secondary to pre swarm slimming down?if she is a virgin, what's the chances of getting mated properly this late in the year?

 

[Willardx]

Forgot to add, in South of England.

 

[tonyofarr]

It depends on whether there are any drones left, most of my hives booted them out weeks ago. If you have drones around the weather forecast is good enough, I have had queens mated in September that were fine.

 

[The Poot]

I still have drones in one of mine and the weather looking ok, so I’d just let them get on with things.

 

[Boston Bees]

Ditto with Poot. Still drones flying from some of my hives. Leave them alone to get themselves sorted (apart from treating and potentially feeding of course).

 

[Willardx]

Still drones in some of my hives. Will give it a few weeks before I think about combining.

 

[Wilco]

Some of mine still have drones and it's good mating weather at the moment. I've also reared a couple of really small queens this year as well but they're doing as well as the other nucs.

 

[Finman]

It is better to buy a mated queen. It takes at least 10 days time that Virginia starts to lay. Brooks cycle is 21 days.

 

[Willardx]

Don't like the idea of buying queens in after reading /watching biba stuff recently.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Don't like the idea of buying queens in after reading /watching biba stuff recently.

Why. What’s the issue?

 

[Swarm]

Don't like the idea of buying queens in after reading /watching biba stuff recently.

I'd hazard a guess they are probably the result of someone's Buckfast queen or nuc anyway looking at those bees.
I would leave them to it myself.
My priority would be to isolate them and establish their health, there are a lot of K wings in that cluster.

 

[Willardx]

What do you mean by k wings? (will google also)

 

[Curly green finger's]

I'll answer that I hope you don't mind Steve,
K wing is a symptom of mites/nosemia but not varroa.. I could explain but hopefully this link does. K-wing and associated desease and viruses.

 

[Erichalfbee]

And CBPV

But if they have K wing how did they fly there?
Normal bees can hold their wings out like that

 

[Bumble Bee Slim]

And CBPV

But if they have K wing how did they fly there?
Normal bees can hold their wings out like that

I was just going to say that I often see bees holding wings in a " k" position and originally thought the worst but when I saw one land on a hive roof ,loaded with pollen ,separate its wings, had a breather and then fly home , I realised this can be normal behaviour but could find no mention of it in books or on Internet.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I realised this can be normal behaviour but could find no mention of it in books or on Internet.

Yes. Vastly over diagnosed. Bees with K wing have dislocated wings.