Rehoming a swarm - what went wrong?!

[kittietrixie]

Hi. One of my colonies swarmed and I re-homed it in a nuc box yesterday with 6 frames of undrawn brood foundation. 5 minutes ago they swarmed again back to where I collected them from yesterday. Any ideas what's happening and what I need to do to settle them? Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

[jimmybee]

put them in a bigger box with a frame of brood

 

[kittietrixie]

Thanks Jimmy. I'll give it a go.

 

[oliver90owner]

Prime or cast?

 

[kittietrixie]

Not sure what the difference is to be honest! It was a large swarm so it looked like a full colony to me, but then this is only my second season so...!

 

[george]

Prime swarm contains an older mated Queen .
A cast is a secondary or 3rd , 4th or etc swarm with a Virgin Queen . Casts are more likely to abscond than a prime .
But a prime may go if it feels too resricted in the box you have put them in .
Putting a frame of open brood for them to tend is a good idea .
G

 

[oliver90owner]

Not sure what the difference is to be honest!

At least you are honest about it. Do you have any books on beekeeping?

Have you missed out on a beekeeping course?

If there is still open brood in your hive it will be a prime. If it swarmed a week previous, it will be a cast. There may be odd-balls when the queen is clipped.

 

[kittietrixie]

Thanks for all your advice on this. Since my last message, they simply upped and left, flying off to the south! A strange experince over all but sound learning! Thanks again.

 

[jimmybee]

sorry to hear that should of told you to put a queen excluder on the botton of the brood box.

 

[Drinkstone]

Does that mean they will now be Essex bee's! Sorry to hear you lost them, perhaps they have not gone far. I have even less experience. the books say the bee's gather up close by before moving to their new home.

 

[oliver90owner]

the books say the bee's gather up close by before moving to their new home.


Is that so? Usually they already know of a better alternative when they abscond.

 

[Drinkstone]

Now which book it is I would have to dig for! However it didn't say they don't know where they are going it said they gather together before actually going. So yes your right of course.