swarm

[nickbow]

Hi,

Was given cast swarm of bees yesterday in a nuc box
Popped a couple of frames of foundation in.The bees seemed to be more interested in my other colonies,this morning they had all vanished.
Any thoughts?

 

[dexter's shed]

depends where the swarm came from, and how long it had been there before collecting, sometimes when collecting swarms that have been in a bush/tree/wall etc for more than 48hrs, they class that as home and will return first chance they get, always best to keep the queen shut in for a couple of days

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Hi,

Was given cast swarm of bees yesterday in a nuc box
Popped a couple of frames of foundation in.The bees seemed to be more interested in my other colonies,this morning they had all vanished.
Any thoughts?

Sh*t happens. I've never had a swarm abscond (yet) but there aren't any guarantees. For what it's worth my 40 litre bait hive has one frame of old comb to give it the bee smell and the rest of the space is full of frames of foundation. It's worked repeatedly.
I've shaken several swarms from hedges etc.into a brood box with full set of frames of foundation and they all chose to stay. I don't use national nucs for swarms.
You say you were given a cast swarm. If you didn't know it's source or provenance you were taking a risk putting it near your other colonies

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Swarms with virgin queens tend to be a bit more flighty and are known to readily abscond

 

[domino]

I lock them in for a few days, seems to work for me.

 

[snelgrove]

was there a queen in the swarm, swarms given to me by local pest control officer sometimes are queenless. not taken correctly and queen missed. these will abscond at drop of a hat.

 

[badger65]

I had the same thing. I found them at the top of a green. Received and popped a QX under the brood box. Job done.

 

[badger65]

I had the same thing. I found them at the top of a green. Received and popped a QX under the brood box. Job done.

I've only had 2 swarms and same happened with both. The third time I might remember.

 

[YorkshireBees]

In my first couple of years I had the occasional swarm abscond, the 2 things I would recommend are used comb (where available - at least one frame) and using a PolyNuc for a swarm (at least until it has settled and outgrown the box.

A national full of foundation is pretty unattractive to swarms imho!