Probably queenless, but I have a "spare" swarm - advice wanted.

[Sutty]

I have a hive which swarmed on 26th April, so now at 5 weeks 2 days. No sign of a queen & no eggs or brood (though I can miss eggs sometimes). The hive sounds queenless when examining.
I also have a swarm from yesterday which I collected this morning and is in a temporary plastic box.
I'm also out of floors & roofs though I have a few empty supers.
I had been planning to drop the swarm into a box containing a swarm from just over a week ago, with a spray of air freshener & let them sort themselves out.
However I'm now considering doing the same with the likely queenless hive. Seems like my best bet.
Any thoughts?

 

[Sutty]

I should add the swarm is almost certainly headed by a virgin queen

 

[Ian123]

Chuck them in give it a go…..be warned though on 1 occasion I did get bee carnage!

 

[enrico]

Have you tried a test frame?

 

[Sutty]

Have you tried a test frame?

No. Examined tonight. It's what I would normally do, but I have to unite the swarm with something anyway.

 

[40-ODD]

I'm in the same boat. Over a month and no brood to be seen. Put a frame of egg's in today, so we'll see in a few day's what they think of that. If they draw queen cell's I'm gonna unite them with a small queen-right colony using the newspaper method. that should be fine, right?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I'm in the same boat. Over a month and no brood to be seen. Put a frame of egg's in today, so we'll see in a few day's what they think of that. If they draw queen cell's I'm gonna unite them with a small queen-right colony using the newspaper method. that should be fine, right?

Yes. Put the small colony on top

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have a hive which swarmed on 26th April, so now at 5 weeks 2 days. No sign of a queen & no eggs or brood (though I can miss eggs sometimes). The hive sounds queenless when examining.
I also have a swarm from yesterday which I collected this morning and is in a temporary plastic box.
I'm also out of floors & roofs though I have a few empty supers.
I had been planning to drop the swarm into a box containing a swarm from just over a week ago, with a spray of air freshener & let them sort themselves out.
However I'm now considering doing the same with the likely queenless hive. Seems like my best bet.
Any thoughts?

Go for it if you don’t mind losing a viable queen so beware as Ian says

 

[Sutty]

I have other colonies I can try a unite with later if needed (too many at the moment).
Thanks for the advice/confirmation.

 

[Ian123]

In my younger days I’d collect and chuck a few swarms on top of each other and use for a section rack or two…..

 

[Sutty]

Well I've just given it a go - sprayed the swarm, between the 2 brood boxes and in top of the brood boxes with "Glade floral blossom", had an empty super on top of the brood boxes, tipped the swarm in and closed up. Lots of smoke too.
Quite loud - let's see what happens!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'm in the same boat. Over a month and no brood to be seen

so is that a month from the swarm? plenty of time yet before expecting brood - unless you are lucky to get a superfast mating.

 

[Sutty]

Has now quietened down considerably, to normal levels, no evidence of carnage from the entrance - we will see the result!

 

[40-ODD]

so is that a month from the swarm? plenty of time yet before expecting brood - unless you are lucky to get a superfast mating.

Oh, really? I thought after a month or so, the chances of her mating successfully were pretty slim.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Oh, really? I thought after a month or so, the chances of her mating successfully were pretty slim.

give us a timeline and we would have a better idea - month from queen emergence or month from the swarm departing and leaving QC's?

 

[enrico]

Has now quietened down considerably, to normal levels, no evidence of carnage from the entrance - we will see the result!

Don't overdo the air freshener. Doesn't take much!

 

[Frizzaldo]

Oh, really? I thought after a month or so, the chances of her mating successfully were pretty slim.

the year before last we had a wet July and I had a queen mate/start laying after about 6 weeks, was just about to combine too

 

[Erichalfbee]

Oh, really? I thought after a month or so, the chances of her mating successfully were pretty slim.

I never give up till six weeks. I often put in a test frame at 5 ish though.

 

[40-ODD]

give us a timeline and we would have a better idea - month from queen emergence or month from the swarm departing and leaving QC's?

I would say 5 weeks since I saw capped cell's and removed the original queen, went back a week later to knock any new queen cell's down, and the new Queen was already there then, so she has been about for 4 weeks or so. Haven't saw her since then though lol.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

the new Queen was already there then, so she has been about for 4 weeks or so.

so plenty of time still then