advice needed.

[Shabro]

I have just united a queenless cast with a swarm that arrived in my bait hive, so not knowing if there is a queen in there and to try and help it along ( rightly or wrongly ) I have put in with it a frame with brood at all stages.
I they were to start drawing out queen cells, is it now too late in the season?

 

[BeeBus]

No

 

[mbc]

Most swarms have a queen of some sort, the definition of a cast is a swarm with a virgin queen, how do you know they were queenless ?

 

[VEG]

you will be surprised at how late in the year bees will supercede plenty of time left yet.

 

[Shabro]

how do you know they were queenless ?

Because ther was so few bees , i found her and terminated her.

 

[VEG]

so you killed the queen then added a frame of eggs?
Why?

 

[Shabro]

sorry I havent explained this very well, I killed the virgin queen in the small cast to unite with the swarm. I then put a frame of brood in to hopefully keep them all there and give them a boost. I'm just wondering if they did happen to draw queen cells.
If I'm doing this totally wrong please say, I'm all ears.

 

[VEG]

Ahh all becomes clear lol

What you have done wont do any harm, if there is no queen they will make one if there is a queen the brood will develop normally.

 

[mbc]

Lumping swarms together is quite a good idea if they are small and you want more robust numbers. I know of a beekeeper who's renowned for putting prime swarms together to make huge colonies for building sections, works for him !