shook swarm with virgin queen?

[wondervet]

we have a colony which we want to shook swarm to transfer from 14 x 12 to nationals (as well as a bit of disease control).

they're warming up towards swarming themselves and it would also be nice to get a new queen in there this spring. I was thinking about a scheme whereby we take the old queen off into a nuc and leave the colony to run with a queen cell. 3 weeks after the old queen has been taken out there will be very little brood left so we could shook swarm ('shook cast') the colony with the virgin or recently mated queen while losing hardly any brood.

is this a good idea?.....I spose it would have to be done without putting a queen excluder under the box in case it interfered with mating flights. So some risk of absconding.

thanks in anticipation.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Wouldn't it be better to AS into a 14 x 12 box?
I read somewhere on here that it's possible to just transfer the queen onto foundation.....Dr S I think documented such a move.
Even if you didn't fancy that you could put her frame in and just cull it when the brood is capped or let them draw drone comb on the bottom first.
In my very narrow experience AS colonies draw frames fairly quickly.

 

[wondervet]

Currently in a 14x12. Yes, could AS into a standard brood box if I follow your argument correctly but will still end up with the new queen and young bees in the 14x12 and same problem of whether good idea to shook swarm them at that stage to get them onto standard frames.

 

[oliver90owner]

Why risk it? There are plenty of alternatives for losing bees, without encouraging them!

I would make a split at a suitable time, with lots and lots of house bees, into a deep nuc and feed them well.

RAB

 

[Erichalfbee]

Currently in a 14x12. Yes, could AS into a standard brood box if I follow your argument correctly but will still end up with the new queen and young bees in the 14x12 and same problem of whether good idea to shook swarm them at that stage to get them onto standard frames.

Sorry thought you were going from Nat to 14 x 12.
RAB is right though.
I suppose there is a temptation to play with bees if you have enough colonies. Me? I'm trying and failing to keep ahead of all of mine this year with this strange weather.