My swarmed colony

[buckwyns]

I need some advice please. A week ago one of my colonies swarmed and as I knew where it had come from I treated it like an artificial swarm and rehoused it in a new brood box with full number of frames of foundation and replaced the super on top (this advice from Ted Hooper). The old brood box containing the queen cell was placed to one side as per a/s. I have checked the new brood box today expecting to find that they had drawn frames and there is not one frame that has been worked on.

What should I do now, should I give them some drawn frames in the hope that the queen starts laying. (I should say, they did have stores in the super).

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[victor meldrew]

I need some advice please. A week ago one of my colonies swarmed and as I knew where it had come from I treated it like an artificial swarm and rehoused it in a new brood box with full number of frames of foundation and replaced the super on top (this advice from Ted Hooper). The old brood box containing the queen cell was placed to one side as per a/s. I have checked the new brood box today expecting to find that they had drawn frames and there is not one frame that has been worked on.

What should I do now, should I give them some drawn frames in the hope that the queen starts laying. (I should say, they did have stores in the super).

Any help would be very much appreciated.

I notice no mention of feeding . The weather has been atrocious for the last week at least . Foundation. No income , bees starving = no chance of drawing comb but every chance of losing bees .
I suggest you feed asap , I also suggest 2 to 1 syrup (a gallon) although no doubt this will be disputed . Once comb is being drawn ,contact feed with 1 to 1 syrup to bring queen back into lay . I know swarms work like hell but can't perform miracles !

Sorry to sound so abrupt but slimmed down queen , cold windy wet weather no stores requires a wake up call .
VM

 

[victor meldrew]

A quicky , Are there stores in the super and is there a QX in place ?
VM

 

[buckwyns]

Thank you very much for your reply. They do have stores in the super, but because of the bad weather, will they not use this. There is also a QE in place

 

[drstitson]

many established colonies have needed feeding and some queens gone off lay.

it's a big thing to expect a swarm to start from scratch in current conditions.

feed. feed. feed.

 

[victor meldrew]

Like doc says, established colonies are struggling !
The nights have been very cold, meaning the bees have stayed with the queen below the QX . I should remove the queen excluder and allow the whole colony to migrate to the stores . later on when the colony has become established ,I would then place the super under the brood box so that the queen will then move up onto the hopefully drawn comb . the super can then be removed and used later in the conventional manner .
VM