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swarms and queening swarms

2K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  loggermike 
#1 ·
Hi, new beekeeper this year. I got a call from a nice lady in a near by town. She told me she got my number after searching for a beekeeper. I belong to the Northern Nevada Beekeepers Association. Guess they had my name and being the closest I got the call. Okay, she had a swarm of bees in her back yard. The weather was cold 30s and 40s, and it was late afternoon. My wife and I went over with a cardboard box, tree shears, (as they were on a branch not 2 foot from the ground ) gloves, etc.. It was too easy. Cut the branch and took the bees home, installed them in a hive box and started feeding them sugar water.

Now, either the colony got too crowded, or the queen was failing. Right now they are doing fine, but do I need to go ahead and get a new queen, kill the old one, or just wait a while to see if the swarm queen is laying. They are on foundation, so it will take a while, plus the weather has turn really cold and stormy the last week.

It has been about a week and a half. They are taking about a quart of sugar water a day. I plan to check the hive this weekend weather permiting. being the first year for me and having 3 other hives, ( all package bees on new foundation all doing fine,)all the bees were are on new foundation. Not knowing if the queen is viable, do I order another queen ?

Everyone on this chat room has very good advice. Even though I belong to an orgination, sometimes the more experienced beekeepers assume us newbees should know these things. Really, the discussions on this board have given me many answers I had question to. Thanks so much

Snits
 
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#2 ·
The queens in swarms usually lay eggs very well. Get your suit on, your gloves, light your smoker, lightly smoke the top bars(just a couple of slow puffs), and pull some frames out of the center of the bees. Examine for eggs, larvae, or brood. If the queen is laying in a nice pattern, it probably is not necessary to order a new queen.
 
#4 ·
If the swarm has a virgin and she gets mated properly,that is going to be a good hive.If it is the old queen,she can usually still do a good enough job to get the new hive up and going before she begins to fizzle out later on.At that time in the usual course of events the bees will replace her.I would watch to see how the queen is doing from time to time,and replace her with a new queen of your favorite type if she starts to slack off,because a lot of times the bees will tolerate an old queen that cannot possibly ever get the hive strong enogh to gather a crop.I found a hive last year that had 2 old queens laying side by side.Even with both laying they couldnt fill more than one box of bees.A new queen fixed that problem.
---Mike
 
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