Uniting after AS - keeping old Q as insurance?

[Finman]

Forgive my ignorance, but I was under the impression that in a natural swarm it was the older forager bees that ?

I have thought do too.
But if we think about structure of bee gang during swarming period, colony has got a while ago many fold of new bees when brood have emerged. Old foragers are few because winterbees have died, and to exist old foragers, the hive should have huge amount of brood 2 months ago...and huge laying and big winter cluster.

What ever, when you look a swarmed hive, you do not see much foraging trafic.
After a week after swarm goes again and then the colony is very silent. The work of whole year has gone.
.
Bees are short living. When you have a swarm hive, and new workers start to emerge, you have only 50% swarm gang left. Then it takes again 3 weeks that new workers start to forage.

What I say is that things happen very slowly in beehives. The age structure of colony has a history.

 

[Finman]

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Yes, uniting swarm and brood hive, you keep the bee age structure in balance. If the colony is devided to two age group, it is a big loss in honey yield. And then 2 queens brood consume more than one queens brood.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Forgive my ignorance, but I was under the impression that in a natural swarm it was the older forager bees that left with the queen to set up a new home and draw out comb from scratch, in nature without even the benefit of foundation?

If a speaker I heard give a talk last year was right, the swarm will comprise a range of bees from young to old. Bear in mind that bees can fly from 3 days old, if they have to. Wax makers are around 12-17 days old. Older, forager, bees can make wax but it takes time for their wax glands to revert to being functional.

A social insect would be unlikely to evolve so that their means of reproduction (swarming) would involve a time delay whilst some of the group became able to produce wax. The swarm has to be up and running as a colony as soon as they've found a suitable nest site, so a swarm has to include younger bees that are functioning wax producers.

 

[Gimlet]

Well maybe I made a mstake last week when I AS'd a hive. I have horizontal hives and as I understood it was the flying foragers that swarmed with the old queen I put the new hive next to the old and then transferred the frames one by one looking for the queen(which I marked the day before), didn't find her on the transfer but found her when I went back through the new hive and gently picked her out by her wings and placed her in the old hive with the flying bees, the very few nurse bees that weren't on the comb during the transfer and two partially drawn out frames. Checked three days later and there was a third drawn out frame. The moved frames in their new hive that had two sealed queen cells and loads of eggs and young in all stages had no emergency queen cells and the hive activity seems pretty good considering the depleted numbers.

 

[Weavers Hives]

Thanks oliver90owner.. well, that told me didn't it. I do have a lot of books and will study them again. I was just seeking the views of more experienced keepers than I. Sorry if I appear less knowledgeable than you Queen Bees. It's because I am.

 

[oliver90owner]

I will respond by PM. What I have to say is best said away from the forum.

 

[Weavers Hives]

Thank you.