Queenless swarm? What to do?

[Jana]

I acquired a 2-dadant swarm last weekend, July 14. I suspect it is queenles. I've noticed what I think are queen cells on the frames. The bees seem very crazy, and I think are making the roaring sound described elsewhere. They just aren't happy. Another beekeeper told me to watch for them bringing in pollen, as that would indicate the queen is laying and there's brood to feed, but I haven't seen them coming in with anything, wilst my nuc is.  Haven't seen any signs of eggs/larvae, but it's been pretty hard to do a decent inspection as they FREAK OUT when I open it up. (I should note that over the last few days I've disturbed them quite a bit, as they were in someone else's boxes/frames and I've had to transfer them into my own, so there's been a lot of manoevering.)

The only other hive I have is the Nuc. I've had it for about 6 weeks. It's just about filled it's 1 dadant, and I'll be adding a 2nd soon.

I'm pretty sure the swarm is robbing the Nuc's feeder to boot.

My Q's:

Will a queenless hive bother making queen cells?

Is it better to:
-take a frame of brood from the nuc and give it to the swarm?
-or combine the 2 hives?
-or get a new queen for the swarm??

Any other advice is welcome! Let me know if you need more info.

Also need to add that I was stung for the first time ever today!

Thanks so much,
Jana

[pondman]

I would give them a frame from your nuc. Make sure it has some eggs on it. Put this in with them an let them be for a couple of weeks. they should make a new queen from some of the cells. Just my thoughts.
Have a great day

James
Pondman

[JP]

I would re-queen at once. You could also combine the two, but if you re-queen the swarm then you have an extra hive. Bees that are queenless will go into survival mode and will readily rob or take feed. Sorry you got stung, i got stung 5 times today performing a removal.

[Brian D. Bray]

I would requeen the hive if queenless.  One thing to consider is that the hives reaction to a frame of brood will give you an indication on what corrective steps to take.  If the roaring stops and they begin building queen cells you known they'll accept a queen.  Just be sure to remove the cells before installing the queen.  If they do nothing the may be at the stage of opting for laying workers.  That can be a bit of a problem and would require shaking out the hive to correct.  To replace a layng worker Put a new hive in the current location of the old hive with the new queen installed take a few frames of honey from the old hivea and shake them free of bees--honey, no brood; you don't want to inadvertently move a laying worker into the new hive.  Move the old hive about 100 feet away.  The foraging bees will go back to the new hive in the original location.  Since that hive has the queen they will accept her.  After a day shake out all the bees in the old hive and put the frames of honey and comb in the new hive and dismantle the old hive.  The laying workers with functioning ovaries and never having been out of the hive will not beable to return to it.  Any nurse bees will go to any nearby hive that will accept them so your nuc might get a population boost as well.

[rdy-b]

I also think you should requeen immediately with proven stock. it is getting late in the season in some places dont want lost time to create another set of problems.need time to build it up for the winter months bring it through and in spring you can split it and there you go.there is no substitute for good progeny.          RDY-B

[Cindi]

Jana, you have some good advice from our members.  Listen to them.  By the way, I see you are in Victoria, I am in eastern Maple Ridge, 45 km from Vancouver, northeasterly.  Nice to see another B.C. member on our forum, we are gaining in numbers  :)  Have a wonderful day, good luck.  Cindi