Swarm Question

Hi All
My bees swarmed this morning.
I caught them and put them in a nuc box – do I need to move the nuc box with the swarm in it to the old spot and move the original hive a few feet away or is it best to leave the original hive where it is and move the nuc a few feet away.
Regards
Les

Personally I would use the latter, but make sure that you go through the original hive to reduce the number of queen cells to one or two to avoid casts.

I guess in theory moving the original might bleed even more older flying bees off, thus making the likelihood of a cast smaller.

I left my original hive where it was and the re hived swarm is at the other end of the garden, they appear to have forgot where they came from and haven't been near the original hive.

You can put the swarm where you like. And I would say the swarmed stock is best just left where it is.

And your swarm stock is likely to swarm again ... there won't be just one sealed queen cell, there might be lots of them.

I agree with Midland Beek.

Go look very closely at the old hive. How many charged queen cells are there?

Consider treating the swarm for varroa with oxalic acid while there is no brood.

Well done retrieving them

Consider treating the swarm for varroa with oxalic acid

Or alternatively 'sugar roll' them all, before any brood is actually capped, then culling the first small areas of capped brood. Should do just as well as oxalic and may be a little more 'queen-friendly'.

Just thought the 'less chemical' option ought to be included here.

Another observation: if the colony was big enough to swarm the prime should, by now, be in a hive, not a nuc box. Adding even more bees (remaining foragers) by placing it at the original hive position would likely make matters even more crowded.

RAB

I agree with RAB
I collected a swarm tuesday that nearly went into my bait hive but ended up in my neighbours garden brushed it into a nuc box added frames but to many bees, had to go and get a brood box they are covering 9 to 10 frames plus I treated with oxalic acid yesterday

Midland Beek said:

You can put the swarm where you like. And I would say the swarmed stock is best just left where it is.

And your swarm stock is likely to swarm again ... there won't be just one sealed queen cell, there might be lots of them.

Click to expand...

I sorted out the queens cells in the original hive after I 'hived' the swarm in the nuc box.
I have an empty hive at work (bait hive) that I can't get until Tuesday - are they likley to swarm again from the nuc box before then?
They made it easy to catch them - head high in a bush 5 mtrs away.
Regards
Les