Swarm caught

Danzy

I have caught a swarm in Cork city, now removed back to my Apiary on my land.

All my other hives are native AMM, reasonable bees.

The caught swarm are not native black, the Queen is dark orange and the much lighter in colour with more defined stripes than natives.

So I'm think Italian or more probably Buckfast.

So given the cross can be nuts, I want to replace the Queen with one of my own.

What would ye suggest is the best approach and should I wait till she starts laying.

victor8600

What I would do, but don't take it as a definitive advice!

Put the swarm queen into an Apidea, don't kill her straight away. Close the Apidea , give it a spray of water inside and put it in a shaded place away from the apiary.

Put a frame with brood from another hive to keep the swarm in the hive.

Leave them queen-less for several hours or a day.

Introduce the new queen (caged with fondant plug or whatever method you are comfortable to use).

yosemitesam1

Would personally wait and see what their temperment is like, the idea buckfast makes aggressive crosses is a myth. You're going to get variability in subsequent matings from your own black stock with some better and some worse. Buckfast is no different, only a very docile bee becoming more aggressive is not necessarily an aggressive bee...

Danzy

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

Would personally wait and see what their temperment is like, the idea buckfast makes aggressive crosses is a myth. You're going to get variability in subsequent matings from your own black stock with some better and some worse. Buckfast is no different, only a very docile bee becoming more aggressive is not necessarily an aggressive bee...

I get your point, on both counts, a docile bee is usually just a properly handed bee.

The swarm itself are very quite, will wait and see.

Danzy

victor8600 wrote: »

What I would do, but don't take it as a definitive advice!

Put the swarm queen into an Apidea, don't kill her straight away. Close the Apidea , give it a spray of water inside and put it in a shaded place away from the apiary.

Put a frame with brood from another hive to keep the swarm in the hive.

Leave them queen-less for several hours or a day.

Introduce the new queen (caged with fondant plug or whatever method you are comfortable to use).

Thanks for that.

Danzy

Just to let ye know I came across a newly capped queencell In a hive I like, so I took out the swarm queen and after a few days, introduced the frame in to the swarm nuc.

It is still there 2 days later, though they had made their own breed queen on a older frame of theirs and are feeding in queen cups on the introduced frame.

Emergence should be in the coming week.

victor8600

Danzy wrote: »

J... they had made their own breed queen on a older frame of theirs and are feeding in queen cups on the introduced frame...

Leave only one Q cell. Bees may decide to swarm with the new queen if there are other queen cells left, as far as I understand.

Danzy

victor8600 wrote: »

Leave only one Q cell. Bees may decide to swarm with the new queen if there are other queen cells left, as far as I understand.

Will do, cheers

Danzy

Herself is running around the hive. Presume she has returned from the mating flight at this stage.

All systems go, till the next pothole.