when to unite a caste swarm?

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roo

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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,
Roobee-smillie
 
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!!
 
Roo?

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

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

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