Swarms and cast swarms

[RARW]

Hi All,

I have a colony that I didnt manage particularly well in April. Top tip - dont have a 3 week holiday in April! No one to blame but me. Anyway, they were a strong overwintered nuc that expanded far quicker than i anticipated and by the time i got to them had multiple capped QC. I couldnt find the Q (3 attempts) and so didn't manage a split. Upshot is that they swarmed, the good news is that I was there and was able to catch them and they are now installed in a nuc. That was on Saturday.
Today they produced a cast which I have installed in a 2nd nuc. I dont know if there is a Q present in either swarm. This has landed me with 2 nucs and 4 full colonies. I really dont want more than 4 colonies as it means there are just too many bees around the garden.
One of my existing colonies is a little weak, they just haven't built up well after coming through winter, on last inspection I couldn't find the Q and numbers were low so I gave them a frame of open brood which actually had a capped QC from the now swarming hive. I haven't inspected again yet. The other 2 hives are doing well and the 4th is the one that swarmed. At some point I need to combine the 2 swarms into my existing colonies.
So onto my questions...

1. Assuming all colonies and Nucs are Queenright how do I chose which Qs to remove? My original Qs were all unmarked but as far as I know they were all 2021 (obs i cant be certain!)
2. Can I combine 3 into 1? If so what method?
3. How long should I wait before combining?
4. what time of day is best to do it? What happens to the flying bees?

Looking forward to hearing your views!

 

[Dutchman]

If you found multiple queen cells and no queen in your swarming colony then that probably means that you had already lost the prime swarm with the old queen. That means that the two swarms you have in your 2 nucs will both be casts with a virgin Queen . The hive they swarmed from will also have a virgin, they might even throw more casts so go through it and release any unhatched queens. Wait a few weeks for these virgins to mate and start to lay and if your two new queens in the nucs show themselves to be well mated with a good laying pattern, let them build up till the end of the season and use them to replace the queens in your worst performing colonies. If your weak colony doesnt pick up in strength soon then that would be the first one to replace but you have to wait until one of your nucs has a mated queen and at least a good frame full of sealed brood and bias, then go through the weak colony and kill the queen and combine with the nuc with newspaper/ air freshener.