Stopping a swarm

[Boldlad]

Hello all

I have just performed my first Pagden. I put the Queen in a Poly nuc with 6 frames and a load of bees. Put it on the original site to gather all the flyers and moved the original hive about 10m away with the Queen Cells and nurse bees.

I moved the entrance disc to QX on the poly nuc and left them to it.

After 2 days i went to the apiary to do some other work to find that the poly nuc with the Queen was in mid swarm, but as I have put the entrance disc to QX she could not get out.
The bees hung around for 10 minutes then went back in.

The question is what do i do now? The swarming urge is obviously still there.

Not been in the nuc yet.

 

[enrico]

I would suggest the box is too small. Have you got another brood box? And I presume the frames were foundation....
E

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes the nuc is too small and there is probably a queen cell in there. If that’s all the kit you had you would have been better putting the queen in a nuc with two frames of brood and moving that away.
You HAVE to separate the queen from the flyers.
I might be tempted to go back now and configure it that way or if you have another brood box do as Enrico says.
Make sure there is no queen cell with the queen

 

[Boldlad]

Yes the frames were foundation and yes I do have a brood box with floor and roof. What should i do? can you give me an idiots step by step guide.

 

[enrico]

You have two options. Nuc, queen, two frames of brood and bees, frame of food, new site. Or everything you have done already but using a brood box and checking the frame that she was on to make sure there were no queen cells on it. There should be some brood on it.
With the nuc you don't want the flyers
With the brood box you do.
If the bees think that their new home is to small, which it is if you have all the flyers from a strong hive then they will just abscond for a bigger home. A QE under the box over the floor like you did with the nuc might help.
E

 

[masterBK]

Some will swarm/abscond even in absence of queen cell if all you give them is foundation .

 

[For want of a better word]

QMP strips can be a Godsend if you have swarmy bees!

 

[enrico]

QMP strips can be a Godsend if you have swarmy bees!

Pardon! What is one of them?
E

 

[Erichalfbee]

Pardon! What is one of them?
E

Queen Mandibular Pheromone

 

[Boldlad]

thanks to all for the replies

I think i now get it. I suppose i did the pagden correctly, it was just a case of the nuc being too small for them. I did have a spare brood box and roof , just not on me at the time.

I will now go back and start again, giving any drawn frames to the original hive.

Thank you everyone.

 

[Erichalfbee]

A frame of nurse bees shaken into the AS wont go amiss either.