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Advice for after swarms collected/honey production & other options

1K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  challenger 
#1 ·
I have collected several swarms so far. I have 4 that I recently got that have virgin queens. I'd like to take a good portion of the bees from these swarms and use them to increase the population of some other hives for increased foraging numbers.
I can put these unmated queens in nucs and make sure they don't get robbed. The strongest flow here is just starting and robbing isn't an issue until it's over.
If I keep these swarms together they would go into single deeps or nuc boxes but if the queen fails to mate then these bees are not doing anything for me as far as honey production which is my biggest push this year.
The other thing I may try is removing the queens from a few of my colonies in about a week or so to see if this increases the honey production. I know this is highly debated but I think I may give it a try. It seems to make a lot of sense??
Thanks
Howard
 
#4 ·
Why do say you wouldn't risk this?
Is it because of disease or that the bees may not get along when being combined?
Some of the after swarms are from a couple of my own hives and some are not.
I have to check the boxes I put them in to be sure these are unmated queens. I feel like they are because of the piping sound they all made as I was collecting the swarms they were in. Their size was a bit smaller than mated queens as well.
 
#3 ·
Yes, it makes sense as you say, I'm having similar debates with myself here. I have an idea for you in your situation and it is this...
Remove your hive queens into nucs, and join the swarms with virgins to the hives. Take the open larva with the queens when you nuc them. It'll take a week or two for virgins to mate and start laying, and you'll get brood break and increased honey storage from lack of brood to feed... Just and idea for you as I was reading your post, not sure how it would work out.
 
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