when will A hived swarm start laying

[Chaos72]

Hi everyone Just looking for some advice.

I collected a swarm 17 days ago and located them in the brood box of one of our hives.
I placed them on a mix of drawn comb and some new foundation as available.
Since then I have been feeding them and they appear settled.

My question is that while they have been storing the food, as yet I can see no sign of any laying activity. Can anyone tell me what sort of time scale is normal for them to start laying again please?

Thanks in advance

 

[Dishmop]

If they have filled up the drawn comb with food there may not be anywhere to lay eggs.

 

[enrico]

I certainly would stop feeding them, they can gather their own now. The laying depends on the queen. Was she mated, is she still in there. I would presume she is a virgin with a cast and that is why she is not laying. She may have to mate and then get into egg laying mode. Be patient and leave them alone for a couple of weeks. The other thing is that she may have started laying. A small patch of eggs can be difficult to see. In a couple of weeks when there is larvae hopefully, it will be easier
E

 

[Mickyboy]

I picked up a swarm on the 9th July and suspected she may be a virgin queen . Inspected yesterday to find capped brood which was a good sign

 

[Midland Beek]

If the swarm came with a mtaed queen, ie. a prime swarm, you can get eggs very quickly, like in a day or so. You can presume that after 17 days you have a second swarm, and it can take up to a month before you get eggs.

 

[kazmcc]

Don't interfere with them during this time though, she may be out on her mating flight so you don't want to disturb the colony. Good luck

 

[alfazer]

I had a prime swarm and then I think a cast swarm from same box about 8 days later. Caught both and hived them on foundation because that's all I had. Gave them about a pint of syrup to get them drawing comb. At my next check a week later there were a lot of eggs in the prime swarm. The cast swarm was laying quickly too; young larva visible after two weeks. The speed at which they draw the comb is amazing for me as a relative beginner and I was chuffed to have been able to catch and house them successfully.

 

[Chaos72]

Thank you everyone.

I am pretty sure it was a cast as it was only the size of a kids football when I caught them so suspect a virgin queen.

It looks like i need to sit back and give them time.

I did have a couple of dummy boards in the brood box so have removed those and put in some new frames in case they have nowhere to lay.

I will also stop feeding them now

time will tell.

Thanks again for the advice and thoughts

 

[kazmcc]

Fingers crossed for you

 

[La Folie]

We similarly picked up a swarm and it took well over 2 weeks before eggs were found, presumably because she was a virgin queen and had to be mated (still have not seen her 4 weeks later!). Also, the laying pattern was erratic to start with because there were so many stores and not enough space. They soon sorted things out however, so be patient.