Small Swarm Capture Questions

[Storm]

I went out last night on what was supposed to be a 2 for 1 swarm capture.  It was supposed to be two separate swarms, one on the guy's driveway, the other in his neighbor's tree.  The guy even had pictures, so I felt reasonably secure.  Unfortunately, when I got there, it seems that either it was one swarm that had started to break up, with the leaders moving on to permanent quarters, and the queen and attendants left on the driveway, or else the second swarm had already left, and his swarm had started to move out, again with the queen and attendants the last to go.  Either way all that was left was a small cluster.  We searched for about an hour, but never found the main swarm.

I was tempted to just leave the queen's group and let them leave one by one until morning, but it was getting dark and some ants were starting to attack the bees.  I brought out a cardboard nuc with a frame of comb (not drawn, I'm sorry to say--I'm low on equipment this late in swarm season) that I had pulled from another hive.  I scooped the queen into the box, and watched them all march in.  What a lovely sight!  My son has the camera with him at camp, so no pix, I'm afraid.

My question is this:  There are only a couple hundred bees.  They seem healthy, but with no pollen stores, no drawn comb, and a dearth here, what are their chances of survival?    If it were you, what would you do to increase their chances?  Feed?  If so, what? Give them brood?  Any other suggestions?  Or just let them go?  Or try to merge them?

[cklspencer]

I'm still new but I would try and see what you could do. It's not a large number of bees so what do you have to lose? I would set them up in a nuc for now and feed them and give them some pollen or pollen sub. at see where it goes.

[annette]

I don't think a couple of hundred bees can do anything to help themselves at this point. I would combine them with another hive.

[AllenF]

Bad late for a small swarm to survive.  You might should let them fly.

[Storm]

Checked them this morning, and the queen has moved up onto the frame and is starting to lay, but barely enough bees to cover one frame, and this being undrawn comb, it's going to be slow.  They've set guards and they're making orientation flights, so they're trying to make a go of it, but it's definitely late in the season.

I started feeding, but I think I'm going to merge with some of the surplus from the big hive next door.  They're way overcrowded anyway.  This way I can solve two problems at once.

I don't see any signs of mites on the feral bees, but I don't want to take any chances either.  With so small a population, I'm afraid to do anything drastic, lest I lose them all.  I don't want to lose my current stock, though, if I merge and it turns out they did have a high mite count.

Should I do the merge and wait until fall to treat, or treat now?  If I treat now, how do I measure for such a tiny amount of bees (plan to do fumigation, if anything).  I've never tried to save such a small bunch before, but they are gentle and determined, so what the heck.  There's always a first.

[AllenF]

Dust them with powdered sugar if you have screened bottoms.

[hardwood]

If you can steal some frames of nurse bees and capped brood from your strong hive it should give them a real boost. A frame or two might just put them over the hump...three or four (if the other hive is really that strong) and they'll be strong enough for just about anything. Keep feeding until your fall flow.

Scott

[greenbtree]

Yeah, pull a couple of capped frames of brood and give it to them, especially if you can find a couple that have the honey and pollen stores at the top of the frame.  I had a small swarm that I did that to 2 weeks ago and they have four strong frames now.  They got knocked over by a coon or something too (I had to put them back together at 11:00 p.m. in the dark).  They are doing o.k.

JC

[Storm]

Thanks Scott & JC.  Just finished building a brood box for the new girls, and I'll inspect the strong hive tomorrow to see what's available.  I'm pretty sure I won't have any problem finding brood there, as the other queen is quite prolific. 

Thanks for all the input, and I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Storm]

Well, I don't know how this is going to affect the plans I had for tomorrow, but we just had one of those infamous unplanned Oklahoma storms spring up.  It blew over the cardboard nuc, including the stand I had it tied to.  The girls were shaken, but I only saw one dead.  Unfortunately, they were sounding off like they had lost the queen.  I didn't want to search too much by flashlight, as the scouts were starting to buzz it. 

I went ahead and moved them to the new brood box, and put a temp lid/bottom board on from scrap plywood. I thought I saw the queen just before I closed up, but they were still humming/fanning and posturing.  I hope it was just a bad case of grumpiness.

I think after this I'm going to give them a few days to settle back down, and just feed them.  I don't want too many changes too quickly.  Maybe by Friday I can do the brood add and/or merge.


Thanks again for all of your help guys.

[Storm]

Well, the little swarm hive is definitely queenless  :( .  The swarm queen was in the hive with them for almost 24 hours before the storm hit, and it appears that she managed to lay a few eggs before disaster struck, as there is now a lovely emergency queen cell in the upper corner of the frame.  I'm still going to move some brood and bees over from the other hive in the next day or two, though, as it would benefit both hives. 

[Finski]

.
Normal hive looses every day 1000 - 2000 bees when they get old.  If you compare that to 100 bees, the meaning is that.

[CountryBee]

Try to get 2 frames of brood and some workers to help and combine the bees.  Annette and Finski are smart. :)