Swarms with virgin queens…

[susan rudnicki]

I am writing this to point out that not all swarms are headed by mated queens from a primary swarm. I have hived 2 swarms so far this Spring that have obviously had virgins, took some time for the queen to become mated and one is now laying. The other arrived April 1, so at the outside point of the “mating rule” should be laying by the 14th of April—very soon. When hiving a swarm, it helps to provide the bees with the resources they need to boost them a bit. A frame of drawn comb with honey and pollen is great, and a frame with some capped brood (let the nurse bees stay on it) is even better for providing the “cementing” pheromones that the brood give off to anchor a colony to its place.

[tim brown]

I just had a hive swarm. It had the old marked queen and a new virgin queen. They swarmed at the same time and landed in a near by tree, then divided into two groups about one foot apart, a basketball size and a volley ball size. I witnessed the swarm. Then collected two colonies. Yeah, for me.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by tim brown.

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