late swarm advice

[beryfarmer]

My hived swarmed yesterday- curiously they went to the same branch as earlier swarm.

ANyways cut it down and but in deep with pierco frames (no drawn out) and an entrance feeder laced with honey/syrup/honey b healthy.  the question is that this deep is right next to the hive the bees swarmed from--will this cuase problems/drift or will the bees mainly stay with the new queen.  Also I guess I shoul have reduced the entrance to keep the swarm there- correct.

Didnt have any drawn out comb to bait the deep with --that is a concern. Though did put on a queen excluder below cover to give the hive a "bee"smell.

ALso havnt opend the original hive to see what is going on-- been bad weather and I have been sick

any thoughts?

[AliciaH]

My very limited experience is that if the swarm is too close to the original hive, the drift back will be very high.  One of the things you could do is steal frames of brood from the original hive (and/or another if you have one) to place with the swarm.  They will not want to leave the babies.

I'm sure others will suggest more possibilities....

[diggity]

I'm still learning too, but based on my experience, the thing that stood out to me is that you said you fed them syrup with honey mixed in via an entrance feeder.  Seems to me this might invite robbing by the parent hive next door.  Bees can't always smell sugar water, but they can sure as heck smell honey.  Being that you're using an entrance feeder, and the two hives are close together, I would think that the likelihood of setting up a robbing situation is very high.

-Diggity

[AllenF]

Your swarm branch still had the swarm smell on it from the last one.  You will notice swarms will it the same place several times in the spring if there are several swarming hives near by.   

And ditch that feeder on the front.  Place it inside the hive.   Reduce the entrance and you don't need to worry about the drift, they left for a reason.  You will have to feed them all winter.  1 to 1 right now for them to build on.   They have to draw out the frames now.

[beryfarmer]

Thanks for all the posts-

couple of thoughts-
you are correct regarding the entrance feeder- normally i use it just for water- mistake on my part.

The real reason they swarmed I think was because of a large wax moth infestation- plus beetles
Went in my original hive and just saw devastation   :'(   - little to no brood and most of my honey gone  :'( (12 frames gone).
was a job clearing it out as best i could- after dark going to freeze the frames  to get rid of the moth larvae.  My bottom board was full of wax moth leavings (1/2 inch deep in some spots) had to tear down the whole colony and clean it out.

all and all the bees were actually pretty good about it. :shock:

new hive still has bees- going to put top feeder on tonight. 

side note- on my original hive i used wax coated pierco-  the original hive never drew it out even though i put enough wax to barely see the hexagons  (1/4 lb for 4 frames?)

[AllenF]

How many frames could you salvage?   After a couple of days in the freezer, put it back into the new hive to clean up and reuse to help them out.  Do you think you have the queen in that new hive?

[beryfarmer]

could salvage about 5.  put 6 in the freezer.  put undrawn to make up the balance.  will put the frozen frames in the hive after 24 hours.  was a mess trying to clean up the frames- honey everywhere- bees were everywhere- even 2 hours after i stopped- dont know if there was some robbing involved

dont know if have queen still.  will see in a few days.  i think in a few days was going to have a beetle explosion- had a whole frme  with hundreds of 3 mm worms.  That one i left out in the rain- it is raingin tonight

I am hoping that the bees that were still buzzing everywhere at 6 pm went inside for shelter.  awful lot of bees for having no brood- and no this was not all due to robbing- saw little fighting.

keep you all posted