Queenless swarm behaviour

[Flatters]

On Thursday I was called by a local beek who was looking for a home for a swarm he collected. I had no spare boxes and so I quickly went to a diy store and go some ply and knocked together a nuc. Friday morning I dropped it off at his house. On Friday evening I called round to collect the nuc and take it home.

I was not optimistic for two reasons; The first was he said that the bees aren’t staying in the nuc and they keep flying back to the tree they were collected off. I suspected that perhaps he had not go the queen and they were trying to get back to her. The second reason was he used a suction device for collecting the bees. It is a bit like a large scale pooter which he connects to a vacuum cleaner. I did think that it was a very aggressive method of collecting a swarm especially since the bees have to travel down a flexible ridged hose into the pooter. They are likely to take a beating on the journey and then be stuck under a slight vacuum whilst the rest are collected.

This evening big groups of bees crawled out of the nuc and have clustred on the lawn and by the side of the nuc. Even when it rained this evening they stayed out. I suspect that this is normal queeenless behaviour, but would appreciate confirmation.

I will let the other beek know of what has happened to the swarm. I will not be adopting the pooter method. Having collected a swarm myself for the first time on Wednesday I can appreciate what the collecting method tells you. If they are in a skep or equivalent on the sheet and the bees are travelling back to the tree it is telling you that you have not got the queen so you need to go back to the swarm position are try again. A pooter cannot do that.

 

[Flatters]

Another theory came to me which may be my fault; Perhaps with the ply being new still had a lot of un-evaporated glue fumes in the wood and those gases suffocated the bees?

 

[oliver90owner]

Perhaps a nuc box is not appropriately sized for a large swarm?

RAB

 

[Heather]

I had to use my vacuum extractor last week on a swarm in a car engine. Not a favourite method- but it was that or they stayed put behind the engine fascia and under the sealed wheel arch.Having a double vacuum compartment with a regulator (Heath Robinson, eat your heart out!)I can control the suction and the bees go into a lower section and so they did mostly seem unscathed when I hived them eventually- (6 hrs later)- Still there today..

The behaviour described above does seem to be queen absent. Maybe a frame of brood- with eggs- will bring them in- you will soon see if they need to use it for a new queen development.

 

[Flatters]

I think it was a very small swarm as the weight of the box was very light compared to the weight of the swarm I collect the other day, so there was plenty of room.

The bee behavior does not look normal as they seem very sluggish and there has been very little activity in and out. It is vastly different to the other swarm.

 

[Flatters]

Heather,
I can understand the use of a vacuum in extraordinary circumstances and so the last resort. The swarm I was given collected by vacuum was on a accessable shrub at chest height.

 

[susbees]

Question is does a small swarm/caste swarm have the same aspirations/requirements as a big one in terms of home...as in nuc too small, standard box hive about right?