Swarmed swarm

[bustergrimes]

It seems the swarm I collected 6 weeks ago has swarmed from again their new hive. It was checked today and there are sealed and unsealed queen cells and no sign of the queen. I left it as is and plan to go back tomorrow morning.

I accept I made a mistake by not spotting the queen cell that caused them to swarm again but now I am wondering what to do next. I really wasn't expecting this to happen - I feel like a bad beekeeper...

I don't think it's a good idea to let the bees make a new queen as she might well be as swarmy as the last and I don't want to order a new queen to replace her as I've now got as many colonies as I want. So I'm wondering if I can destroy all QC's and unite it with another colony that is sitting about 3 feet away?

Is this a good option?

 

[oliver90owner]

Buy a queen. That way you will still have number of hives you want and be rid of the swarmy genes.

Now, if you had more colonies than you want, uniting is a possibility. Best if hopelessly Q-. Don't really know if it is a good option. It is an option, for sure, but as to the quality of the choice, I have no idea.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

If you know it's healthy (which it seems to be). It'll have a brood break so you could treat for varroa before the unite.

 

[user 6228]

how long was this swarm outside the hive before you collected it?
where was this swarm from?

 

[beeno]

Hi bustergrimes,
Seems very good plan to me provided you are happy with the queen genetics in the other hive. I am working on getting rid of some bad genetics too - inability to produce surplus.

 

[bustergrimes]

Thanks for the advise fellas.

I'm plan to unite them. I have enough bees now and no real room for any more.

derekm - By the looks of them they'd only been there for a couple of hrs and they must have been from a neighbours hive.