Uniting a swarm Which option?

[Mothman]

I have what I think is a cast swarm in a hastily constructed Nuc box that I caught at the weekend (I am awaiting some new wooden ware!) That I wish to unite with another hive. At present I have two hives one I will need to AS as soon as my new woodenware arrives and another that has a virgin queen that hopefully should start laying soon. So I think it would be better to unite the swarm with the youngest queen rather than add bees to a colony that is about to swarm (artificially or otherwise!). The Nuc is sitting on top of the hive with the virgin at present.

My original plan was kill the queen in the Nuc, leave 24hrs, tip bees in Nuc into an empty super over newspaper and queen excluder (just in case) and leave to combine. However I suspect this would rather disturb the new colony below. So...

New Plan - Kill Queen in Nuc, Leave 24hrs, smoke Nuc heavily for an hour then tip the bees out on a sheet 20yrds from the hive so then they should fly back to the original hive position, find the hive below and be accepted there smelling of smoke and full of nectar.

Any comments? Or is this a reasonable strategy?

 

[oliver90owner]

I have what I think is a cast swarm

one I will need to AS as soon as my new woodenware arrives

another that has a virgin queen that hopefully should start laying soon.

So both virgins? Well you don't really know? One dead (virgin or laying) and another that turn out to be a drone layer. Sounds like a good recipe for a bigger problem than you have at the present time.

Apart from the slight risk of disease, I don't think you are thinking quite straight. Unless there is/are overriding reason(s) to unite at this time, I wouldn't.

I don't have any clue as to what woodenware might be arriving, I don't know why you should be needing to be A/Sing the other colony (if it 'needs' it right now, I hope your order arrives pronto).

Seems to me you need to sort out your strategy carefully before jumping.

 

[Pete D]

I would leave the uniting for a couple of weeks.
You have a virgin about to lay, so give her time to do just that, you may at least know her provenance and she may be a good layer.
If the cast swarm are staying put there is no hurry, again let her come into lay and assess which queen to keep.
Better to choose from 2 good layers in 2 weeks than from 2 unknowns right now.
A spare good laying queen is good to have in 'stock'.

Your intended AS may also fail so a spare small colony with a good queen housed in a nuc may prove invaluable.

Patience, no need to rush into a decision that will lessen your options

good luck
Pete D

 

[Mothman]

I have what I think is a cast swarm

They look like my bees and the timing would be right for them to come from the hive with the (at present) virgin queen where I left two queen cells. The swarm itself is probably only 1Ltr in size.

one I will need to AS as soon as my new woodenware arrives

The original Hive I did an AS on too early as I was going away on holiday thus they are at it again, I have knocked down the queen cells twice now (as per Coopers advice) so need to do an AS properly this time. Woodenware is a new hive for the AS.

another that has a virgin queen that hopefully should start laying soon.

Sorry I should have said mating and then laying soon - I am assuming she should be left alone to do this.

If this is not a good strategy, do you have any suggestions? My main concern is getting them out of my rather poor Nuc box (it needs re building bee space is generally wrong and only has one full frame, the others are super frames!)

 

[Pete D]

Ah, more info to work on...............
I will think on it as I drive to sunny Chichester this afternoon......... 180 miles and 4/5 hrs in traffic, cant wait.

Oh can you borrow 4 brood frames to buy you some time........ bee space (top / bottom) shouldnt matter too much in a nuc as long as they can get around the frames, if its frame spacing just make them equalish.
Good luck
Pete D

 

[Mothman]

No bee space on sides just top and bottom! and no frames to hand until delivery of new bits

Enjoy the drive!