Queenless hive and a swarm... what to do

[Andrew2000]

Im pretty sure my main hive is now queenless as no sign for a long time and no brood or eggs now. Lots of bees though

I picked up a swarm last week which is strong and just about fills a 6-frame national nuc (which Ive just transferred to a hive). My delimma is what to do now.

It makes sense to combine them and use the queen from the swarm but not really sure on the best method. My options are:

1) combine them as any 2-hive combine, hive with queen on the bottom, newspaper then the queenless hive on the top.
2) Find the queen in the swarm and introduce her to the queenless (bigger) hive.

My only reservation with 1) is that the queenless hive is bigger / stronger than the hive with queen in. Will it be OK??

 

[enrico]

I am not sure of your presumption that your hive is queen less. Use a test frame of eggs and young larvae from another hive if you haven't done so. You don't know the health and temperament of the swarm yet

 

[Murox]

What do you mean when you say "main hive is now queenless as no sign for a long time"? What have you done to confirm that your "main hive" is in fact queen less?

 

[Andrew2000]

What do you mean when you say "main hive is now queenless as no sign for a long time"? What have you done to confirm that your "main hive" is in fact queen less?

So far 5 weeks without any eggs and I have looked hard and cant find her. I have a feeling there will be a barrage of replies saying wait longer now!

If thats the case then I will wait!

However, hypothetically, if the queen is defintely not there after a longer wait, what would be your advice?

 

[enrico]

So far 5 weeks without any eggs and I have looked hard and cant find her. I have a feeling there will be a barrage of replies saying wait longer now!

If thats the case then I will wait!

However, hypothetically, if the queen is defintely not there after a longer wait, what would be your advice?

A test frame. If they build queen cells the chances are they are queen less, if not then the chances are there is one in there.

 

[Andrew2000]

That would definately be the plan if I had one! Im down to my last hive and my previous bee friend to pinch a frame of eggs from has now packed in beekeeping. Its the swarm and 'main hive' thats left now

 

[W0otz]

If you give the swarm some drawn comb the queen (if it's not a cast with virgin...) will lay it up very quickly. You can use that to test whether the other hive is queenless.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A test frame. If they build queen cells the chances are they are queen less, if not then the chances are there is one in there.

if they don't build QCs there might be a queen in there

 

[blackcloud]

If the queenless hive was no good anyway you could just shake them out to eventually supplement the swarm.

 

[enrico]

That would definately be the plan if I had one! Im down to my last hive and my previous bee friend to pinch a frame of eggs from has now packed in beekeeping. Its the swarm and 'main hive' thats left now

Sorry, when you said your main hive it sounded as though there were others that were not main hives

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If the queenless hive was no good anyway you could just shake them out to eventually supplement the swarm

That would definately be the plan if I had one! Im down to my last hive

In that case, I would definitely just leave the swarm settle down for a week or so and then shake out the suspected Q- colony out in front of it

 

[ericbeaumont]

pretty sure my main hive is now queenless

Where are you in Surrey?

 

[Sutty]

I was in a similar position last year, though complicated by lack of more hives. I had a hive I was pretty sure was queenless, and I had a swarm from another hive.
I took out 6 frames, sprayed the swarm and the recipient hive with air freshener (swarm got 2 sprays with a tip around in between), dumped the swarm in the gap and gently added the frames back.
Result: no fighting and a queenright hive that went on to do well.