After a cold and rainy week of weather we are now into a cycle of warmer weather and a spell of swarm calls. I picked up two more swarms today. One was pretty simple, it was stuck on the outside of a new house under construction, between two and five foot level. Brushed the majority into the nuc until they were fanning and went back at dusk and picked them up.
The other one was a bit harder to get, it was inside of a thorny bush on the ground. The homeowners said it was on the eave of the house earlier and there were still quite a few bees going in and out of the hole in the facia. I thought that there was a colony in the overhang, but after prying a board back I could see that there was nothing inside except a few bees inspecting the cavity. I am of the opionion that there may be something wrong with that queen. She and the swarm was on the house but she did not move in, apparently falling to the ground and not getting back up.
My question, and thought. I may want to combine these two swarms into a nice sized colony, both are still in the cardboard nuc boxes tonight, should I;
A: Put all the bees and frames (PC) into a medium box and let the queens fight it out?
B: Install them into seperate hives and find the suspect queen and kill her, and then hive them together useing the newspaper method?
C: Any other ideas?
Either way I would use a queen includer for a few days, add a frame of brood and feed with syrup and Bee Pro.
Side note: There are quite a few studs in both swarms, more than I normally see. Would that be indicitive of a newly hatched queen?
The other one was a bit harder to get, it was inside of a thorny bush on the ground. The homeowners said it was on the eave of the house earlier and there were still quite a few bees going in and out of the hole in the facia. I thought that there was a colony in the overhang, but after prying a board back I could see that there was nothing inside except a few bees inspecting the cavity. I am of the opionion that there may be something wrong with that queen. She and the swarm was on the house but she did not move in, apparently falling to the ground and not getting back up.
My question, and thought. I may want to combine these two swarms into a nice sized colony, both are still in the cardboard nuc boxes tonight, should I;
A: Put all the bees and frames (PC) into a medium box and let the queens fight it out?
B: Install them into seperate hives and find the suspect queen and kill her, and then hive them together useing the newspaper method?
C: Any other ideas?
Either way I would use a queen includer for a few days, add a frame of brood and feed with syrup and Bee Pro.
Side note: There are quite a few studs in both swarms, more than I normally see. Would that be indicitive of a newly hatched queen?