My Little swarm

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suetheramble

New Bee
Joined
Feb 21, 2011
Messages
13
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Location
Surrey
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
2
On Friday I found a really small swarm but I boxed it and put it into a hive. This is the first time I have done this but I put a queen excluder between mesh floor and brood box and another under the crown board, I am feeding them fondant and sugar water. Is this all correct and do I need to do anything else? When can I take the queen excluder above the mesh floor off. I am a little concerned the queen may be a princess so want her to be able to mate if necessary.
Can anyone advise?
Thanks
 
by putting the queen excluder under the box you are as you said stopping the queen from leaving to mate. If it is a small swarm it is more likely to have a virgin queen.
 
So do I take the queen excluder away now - I thought this was needed to make the queen settle in the hive but as I said I haven't done this before
 
If she is a virgin she will have to leave, and hopefully make it back, at sometime.

If you have any brood to spare, the other bees are less likely to leave.
 
Keep them as warm as practicable and confined to one side of the hive - they are unable to adequately warm a whole deep box, in the weather we are having, so comb drawing will be reduced.

If as small as you seem to indicate (give us an idea, size-wise (tennis ball, grapefruit, bigger?). Just give them enough frames to accomodate the bees initially, unless you have any spare drawn comb - in which case enough drawn to accommodate the bees and one or two foundations for them to draw.

As the rest say, a small area of open brood would help them to decide to stay (cast swarms are more likely to abscond, I have found).

Don't need a Q/E above the brood, but only remove when doing other things. The 1:1 will be OK for them from either a rapid or contact feeder, and don't leave any holes open in the crownboard! Filling any void beyond the dummy/divider would help as would some insulation above the crownboard.

Was this swarm from your bees? If so, you may need to take precautionary measures to avoid any further losses.

You might consider giving them a small area of emerging brood to boost their numbers (and then possibly more when those bees have emerged). All depends initially of keeping them - they are more likely to stay if warm and cosy with some open brood initially.

Is the hive on a solid floor? If on an OMF, close it up in this cold weather for a few days - every little helps ( bait hives are more successful in attracting swarms if they are reasonably light-tight (ie solid floors).

Apart from all that, good luck!

RAB
 
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