i know it's late but in the last 10 days i've had 3 swarm calls. both were very small. the 1st was the size of a softball & had a bred queen. i added that to a queenless hive & the queen is laying heavily!! the 2nd was baseball size & queenless.
:jawdrop:
As I understand, 4th of July typically marks the end of swarm season out here. Have you been getting any rain? We haven't had any for three weeks.
Did you add both of those small swarms to the same hive?
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It is good to put small swarms together.
Small swarms I use in mating nucs.
If you join them enough and they fiill 2 langstroths, it is real hive then and is able to make honey.
Quote from: Finski on July 19, 2013, 03:49:50 AM
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It is good to put small swarms together.
Small swarms I use in mating nucs.
If you join them enough and they fiill 2 langstroths, it is real hive then and is able to make honey.
If the small swarms you combine all have a queen how do you chose a queen? Just by chance I guess. I asked because I have never combined swarms as I have never caught enough to have a need to try.
only one of these had a queen. they were both added to same queenless hive which was also a swarm. i have several combined swarms. i gained 5 hives from capturing 10 swarms. several were secondary & small. some were queenless. all are now queen-right & are doing well.
It sounds like you have some happy bees, rober!
X:X
just caught another. this one was good sized, i put it in a nuc. i'll check for a queen in a few days. if it's queenless i combinr it with another hive.