Queenless or Not Pros

[beeno]

Hi all again,
Cast swarm collected 9th Aug on day of swarming. Hived with some fondant. Week later not built a lot of comb, but plenty of bees. Since then fed 2kg sugar. Day after first feed they came out en masse, but went back in. 13 days later built reasonable amount of comb, but filled it to the brim with stores which they are fanning to cap. No pollen going in what so ever and they don't bother to forage at all. All cooped up, but good defenders at the small entrance hole. Good tempered. Stopped feeding. A lot came out from me removing the feeder and opening them up, but they are all piling back in. Weather has been v good. What is going on?

 

[george]

If its good natured it sounds queen right .
If it was a cast then you may have seen the queen returning from a mating flight .
Check out the thread re queens taking 8 wks to come in to lay . It does seem to be an odd yr for mating and laying .
Also when you say you fed sugar do you mean in the form of syrup or just a soaked bag on top of the feed hole ?
Syrup is what they need now , to help them draw some foundation . Do you have any drawn comb you could put in ?

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Thin syrup is best for drawing wax it's easiest to assimilate. A 9th August swarm - it's now 22nd, so she's not overdue for being mated although the weather has been OK for it. If they have enough food, leave them a week and see. Don't inspect between 10 and 4 as the queen could be out on mating flights and you might confuse the situation. For me, there's little forage at the moment so they may not have much pollen to get and with no laying queen, they don't require it just yet.

 

[beeno]

Hi George - Got a bit lazy there it is syrup. No mating flight I don't think as I saw them go out and swirl around and back in again. It looked more like an aborted swarm attempt (but I am a newbie). Actually the drawn comb bit is a good idea now when I have stopped feeding just in case I have got a virgin. She better hurry up though deluge on its way. Have to rob Peter to pay Paul though, but that's what beekeeping is all about it seems.

 

[beeno]

Hi Hebeegeebee,
Thanks for your encouragement. It is just the fact that they don't forage at all that gets me. I can see as you say that they do not require the pollen yet as no larvae and I have been feeding them syrup so I guess they do not need nectar either then. But still, I have not had a swarm like that before! They are holding my plans up.

 

[Polyanwood]

Mine aren't foraging much. Not much around. A bit of grey pollen. Waiting for the ivy.