Recombining

[Beezy]

hi,

I was hoping for some advice on recombining please. we had a swarm 2/3 weeks ago (our swarm) and hived them in our spare hive and fed with syrup as we only had 3 super frames and the rest undrawn brood frames, so wanted to encourage them to draw out the brood frames. they were taking syrup and my husband checked them a few days ago but found that they hadn't actually drawn out any more frames, just stored the syrup on the 3 super frames. also no sign of the queen or eggs but the bees seemed content, despite their appearing fewer in numbers than before too.

i can't check them myself unfortunately as i'm on medical orders to rest, but if my husband was to recombine this apparently q- hive, does he just shake the bees into our original hive? is there a need to do the newspaper thing if there's no queen to introduce?

thanks, any advice much appreciated.

 

[VEG]

Put a test frame in first to make sure there is no queen in there

 

[Cazza]

I'm betting Veg is right and there probably is a queen in there in which case you do need to check first.
Cazza

 

[Beezy]

Put a test frame in first to make sure there is no queen in there

Unfortunately I don't have a test frame to use as I only have 2 hives; one on jumbo frames and this one on standard national. If you think there's a q I'll get him to take another look though to make sure. Thanks!

 

[drstitson]

swarms just need foundation.

you gave drawn comb so they set about storing rather than using.

where is HM to lay?

 

[Beezy]

swarms just need foundation.

you gave drawn comb so they set about storing rather than using.

where is HM to lay?

I gave 3 drawn frames as when I caught them we had the wettest weather and they wouldn't be able to get out and collect nectar. The rest were undrawn & they were fed syrup. But they still didn't draw the remaining frames.