Ruben
10-01-2006, 11:00 AM
On Thursday I took the surplus supers off of my three hives in my out yard and one hour later I saw a small swarm starting to cluster in a tree so I think I may have pulled the queen off or something because I don't use queen excluders. The swarn was about the size of two softballs so I put the swarm into a hive body and waited until good weather today and I went through the first hive and I found no eggs, no open brood, about 50 capped brood total, but I could not find a queen.
Hive two I found eggs, open brood of various stages and capped brood, but about half way through I dropped a frame and they tried to eat me up and would not calm down so I closed them up.
Hive three I found no eggs, some capped brood, and I found the queen. So ....
I feel like this small cluster swarm is my queen from the first hive and I am thinking I should do a paper combine to get her back in there. If so someone told me to take vanilla extract and mix it with water and spray it in both colonies and then put a sheet of newspaper on top of the first hive and cut some small slits in it and then put the hive body with the swarm in it on top of that one. Does this sound correct? Should I do something else? all help is appreciated, Thanks Ruben
Hive two I found eggs, open brood of various stages and capped brood, but about half way through I dropped a frame and they tried to eat me up and would not calm down so I closed them up.
Hive three I found no eggs, some capped brood, and I found the queen. So ....
I feel like this small cluster swarm is my queen from the first hive and I am thinking I should do a paper combine to get her back in there. If so someone told me to take vanilla extract and mix it with water and spray it in both colonies and then put a sheet of newspaper on top of the first hive and cut some small slits in it and then put the hive body with the swarm in it on top of that one. Does this sound correct? Should I do something else? all help is appreciated, Thanks Ruben