Uniting caste swarm advice please

[freethorpe bees]

Picked up a primary swarm which I suspected may have had two queens as eagle eyed OH spotted a very small queen (virgin?).
Put them into a bb. A lot of the bees have now disappeared but the remaining ones are drawing comb. I think I may be left with a caste swarm.

I have another caste swarm in a nuc box, so have put these into another bb and united the two over paper today. Will let the queens sort themselves out.

1. How long should I leave them before reducing to a single bb?

2. Should I feed them?

Thoughts and advice appreciated, thank you.

 

[beeno]

Hi freethorpe bees,
I would not have done that as you can have two bites at the cherry to make sure you get a properly mated queen! Then pick the best one and unite?

 

[REDWOOD]

Picked up a primary swarm which I suspected may have had two queens as eagle eyed OH spotted a very small queen (virgin?).
Put them into a bb. A lot of the bees have now disappeared but the remaining ones are drawing comb. I think I may be left with a caste swarm.

I have another caste swarm in a nuc box, so have put these into another bb and united the two over paper today. Will let the queens sort themselves out.

1. How long should I leave them before reducing to a single bb?

2. Should I feed them?

Thoughts and advice appreciated, thank you.

You would have been better to leave the queens get mated and inspect brood before uniting and letting the queens fight it out as the prolific gentle queen might have been the looser but what's done is done.

should I feed; same answer for bees whether a swarm or a full size colony; do they have stores probably not
The only time there is an exception to the rule is not to feed a swarm for 24 hrs after collection

 

[freethorpe bees]

Thank you both, for your replies. Both swarms were so small I thought they would have a better chance as one colony. I will feed tomorrow.

 

[sharonh]

Hi freethorpe bees,
I would not have done that as you can have two bites at the cherry to make sure you get a properly mated queen! Then pick the best one and unite?

Agree.
Risk now is that both queens could die in battle. Would have waited to see which queen was best.

 

[masterBK]

Probably best practice to replace queens that come with stray swarms with ones that you have bred yourself from colonies with low tendencies to swarm.