when to unite a caste swarm?

[roo]

Hello everyone,
Im a fairly new beek and acquired a caste last weekend, was surprised to see today that the queen is already in lay, is this unusual and how long should i leave it to unite to a queenless colony i already have ?
Many thanks,
Roo

 

[winmag270]

it would seem it was not a cast, but possibly a small prime swarm?

if you're sure 100% the other colony is queenless and the swarm has a laying queen, then unite them straight away, the sooner they are combined, the sooner they can all build up as a new colony....

just my thoughts.....

prepare for incoming fire!!

 

[Poly Hive]

Roo?

Why do you think your hive is queenless? You have put in a test frame of course and got no queencells?

PH

 

[oliver90owner]

Yes, not only broodless, but queenless too. Also important there are no laying workers.

Two important things to consider before uniting.

ASAP is the answer - providing neither of the above apply.

I like the way P H has asked his question. Alpha re foxtrot methinks, but worth the follow-up post.

Regards, RAB

 

[Midland Beek]

As per previous responses, you don't want to unite this queenright colony to some supposedly queenless one and have your 'good' queen killed.

A test frame will determine if your 'bad' colony really is queenless.

A careful unite with newspaper of a queenright colony to a queenless one almost always works, and there's no point in delaying uniting the two.

 

[roo]

Thanks for replies everyone,
Just a quick question about uniting....should i put queenright colony underneath queenless one?

 

[Midland Beek]

Uniting with newspaper just tends to work whichever way you do it.

Personally, I would be inclined to put queenright at bottom, and move queenless colony to queenright stand.

Note that the newspaper needs some small starter holes.

 

[Poly Hive]

I put the Q+ on top as they have the more powerful impulse to get through the paper and get supplies in for the family.

The paper does need a poke with the hive tool as the bees cannot chew through tight flat paper, they need a start given them.

PH