Hi All,
Second year beekeeper, I hived a swarm last month which brought my number of hives up to four.
I just talked to someone today who has a swarm (size of two footballs) in their yard near my house. Is it too late in the year to hive this swarm and get it to live through the winter?
I also considered combining it with one of my weaker hives...but I doubt I'd be able to find and kill one of the queens (I'm no good at finding them).
Thanks in advance for your suggestions. I've been a lurker here for a long time but this is my first post, ya-all are great group of very knowledgable people.
Kevin
Two footballs is a pretty good number of bees. I'd put them in a hive, start feeding immediately, and see how they do. Then, as cold weather closes in, you can make the call on whether to combine them with a weaker hive. It will also be easier to find the queen by then. If you take your time, you ought to be able to spot a queen in one of the hives.
I don't think it is too late, especially if you can feed them for almost 2 months. You can winter them on top of a larger hive to conserve heat.
Combining them with a weak hive is a great idea, use the newspaper combine and they can sort out the queens.
If nothing else you can put them on foundation and get a super of foundation drawn out full of honey for a split next year.
If you did not hive swarm and you left them in the yard. What would become of them? Would they not find a place of their own and try to store up before winter? I guess they would all die eventually with limited food? So saving them now and feeding them really is saving them?
I would hive it. and feed religously.
It's always worth hiving it. In a month or two you can decide what to do next.
A swarm that size can make it with the right approach. Put them into a 2 tier nuc box due to the amount of bees and feed them hard. If you can get them to build out most of 2 nuc boxes of frames and make stores in the next month and a half they'll make it throught the winter in the nuc configuration where they wouldn't in a standard 8 or 10 frame hive. Up and narrow works better for overwintering bees if limited size, space, or resources.