Post-swarm uniting - sanity check please?

[Nakedapiarist]

I have a plan in my head but it needs checking and I've hassled my bee mentor enough this week.

I have my captured swarm in a nuc box 12 foot away from the original hive. The queen cell in the hive was open on Sunday but sealed on Monday so presumably the virgin hasn't emerged yet.

If I remove the old queen on Saturday, move the frames & workers from the nuc into a doubled up super with an excluder and newspaper layer, will I be causing problems as long as I leave the brood chamber alone? At present it has a super on it with no excluder - I'll have to remove frames from this ( none drawn out at last check ) to do the deed.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Sorry, but the whole 'plan' has disaster painted all over it. Just re-uniting immediately after a swarm has emanated doesn't solve a thing - once they get a new queen they'll be off again' You have to wait for the new queen to mate in the original hive, prove she is viable then leave both colonies develop and for swarming urges to subside then decide which queen to keep and re-unite

 

[Nakedapiarist]

Thanks
Presumably for the next couple of weeks I should just leave the old colony alone. I have been feeding as there's no drawn out comb in the super, should I keep that up? The super went on the day before the swarm occurred.

Any issues with keeping the swarm in the nuc box? I've got nothing else to house them in.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

probably feeding may have been the cause of the swarm. a couple of pints to get them going if you want them to draw comb in a new brood box but that's all - why are you giving them a super? is the brood box fully drawn yet? if they're bringing in nectar then they have plenty of raw materials to draw out the super - if they're not, they don't need the super drawn.
Back to your question - do you know whenabouts the QC was capped? leave them alone until a couple of weeks after you think the new queen will emerge